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Critics Consensus: Despite a promising premise and a solid central performance from Jesse Eisenberg, Holy Rollers lacks the depth necessary to overcome its cliched script.
Critic Consensus: Despite a promising premise and a solid central performance from Jesse Eisenberg, Holy Rollers lacks the depth necessary to overcome its cliched script.
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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (43)
This is moviemaking on autopilot.
It's not a terrible movie, but all the way through you feel as if you've already seen it.
It's sadder and scarier than its predecessors, but it also may be the most important chapter in the tale.
The scenes of family conflict are sketchily dramatized. We never get to the place where the two parts of Sam's personality meet -- the devoted son and sharp-dealing criminal.
The film is slight, but Eisenberg is a deadpan delight.
As a thriller, it's bubkes.
We have seen this all before; from Jesse Eisenberg's trademark jitters and speedy speech to the inevitable tragic story arc and the morphing of smalltime dabbler to swaggering kingpin, undone by over-confidence. Oy vey.
An arrhythmic but very interesting film... [Full review in Spanish]
Holy Rollers' innocence-lost, you-can't-go-home-again arc is something of a cliché, but the film remains refreshingly nonjudgmental about its hero's burgeoning criminal career.
The one and only problem I had with HOLY ROLLERS was the pacing. I found myself getting slightly bored and at times, looking at my watch. I'm sure it's not easy to mesh Orthodox Judaism and Ecstasy, but Asch did a pretty good job.
Offering the viewer hardly any reason to feel this story is credible.
Despite a suitably nervy turn from Eisenberg, there's no energy to the film-making or much insight into the story.
Feeling left in the slow lane of life, New York Orthodox Jews try drug running for awhile, trading on their outsider status. Families disapprove, but they do improve the drug-running game, because they're good with money ... ! Oy.
Super Reviewer
An interesting idea executed in an un-interesting way, 'Holy Rollers' had my attention, but due to a lack of interesting characters and some serious pacing issues failed to hit the mark.
For a movie based on a true story about Hasidic Jews working as drug mules trafficking ecstasy in the late 90s this movie was really dull. Sure, maybe the limitations are the result of this being a low budget indie, but I think it would have been worse as a big budget major studio affair. The real issue is that the idea is inspired, but the script, direction, and acting are all lacking. I liked the idea of a young guy torn between religious studies and making tons of money in the drug trade, but they really dropped the ball with the concept here. It all felt rehashed, unoriginal, and jut kinda blah. It doesn't help that the lead is done by Jesse Eisenberg. I like him, but he just doesn't really appear to be trying here. Justin Bartha however is awesome. He gives the best performance, is the most interesting character, and the focus clearly should have been on him. I wasn't totally bored, but I didn't really care a whole lot either. Also, the washed out look really didn't fit for me and seemed unnecessary. You could see it, but I would ONLY recommend it for hardcore completists.
Sometimes very cliche, but with a terrific performance by Jesse Eisenberg and a nice screenplay, Holy Rollers is a good film to watch.
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