The Iceman Reviews
Top CriticThe Iceman offers a chronological view into the life of its title protagonist... and what a life it is.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
amNewYork
The film is at its best when it navigates the contradiction at the heart of this man, generating interest and tension as it parallels his home life with his profession.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Bloomberg News
Michael Shannon's clenched jaw finds its ideal role in Ariel Vromen's taut hit-man saga "The Iceman."
Tolucan Times
The film is well made and holds interest, but I deplore the delicate treatment and the shading of truth of this despicable beast. Watching Vroman's take, one almost feels sympathy for him.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Michael Shannon's mesmerizing portrayal of Richard Kuklinski, a notorious contract killer, has the paradoxical quality, peculiar to many great screen performances, of being unreadable and transparent.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Shannon inhabits this character so completely that by the end of this hard-to-watch, hard-to-look-away-from movie you feel you can, if not understand Richie, at least wish he had found some redemption in life.
Shannon is brilliantly unnerving as he callously dispenses with people, then returns home to maintain his façade of a loving husband and father.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Michael Shannon moves through "The Iceman" like a shark.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Flick Filosopher
[A]n oft-told tale, though one that does come alive in a few places that make it worth a look. The always electrifying Michael Shannon... enjoys what may be the fullest expression of his smoldering onscreen rage yet.
Shannon could be looking at an Oscar nomination. His performance is that stone-cold good.
JoBlo's Movie Emporium
The Iceman is a tense dramatic thriller presenting a grim - yet seemingly more picturesque - portrayal of a cold and calculated killer, a role that is tailor made for the ferociously intense Michael Shannon.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Michael Shannon is so fascinating that I was honestly rooting for him to survive. The point of The Iceman is "Even monsters are human," but it takes a great actor to make a dubious theme convincing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Hollywood & Fine
A powerful blend of grit and finesse..a gripping crime story..a psychopathic killer played with unlikely restraint by the most surprising actor around, Michael Shannon.
Shannon gives an unnerving performance as a man caged in a cruel apathy, maintaining a controlled façade that seems to twitch with barely sublimated distress.
Movie Nation
The best straight-up, down low and dirty mob picture since "Goodfellas."
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5
Screen International
A grim, gripping, brooding and impressively performed film with a wonderful sense of time and location.
A finely chiseled thriller that reflects the cold-blooded efficiency of its murderous subject in every frame and detai
Film Journal International
Harsh, gritty-and increasingly grisly-this true-crime story dramatizes the life and bloody career of contract killer Richard Kuklinski: just another suburban dad who never brought his work home.
ColeSmithey.com
With so many substantial performances under his belt, it's not accurate to tern Michael Shannon's exemplary work here as a "breakthrough performance." It is nonetheless Oscar-worthy.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
We Got This Covered
Even though we all knew Michael Shannon would be perfect as Richard Kuklinski, he still manages to mesmerize audiences like we're discovering his unparalleled acting chops all over again.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
