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Carnage (15)

Comedy, Drama

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos.


The critical consensus

Great acting by four of the finest.

*****Chris Tookey, Daily Mail, 21/10/2011

A four-way of furious awkwardness played with consummate skill. But, given the talents involved, couldn’t we expect something just a little more substantial?

***(*)(*)Matt Glasby, Total Film, 23/01/2012

Fast, funny and filthy, it will have you in stitches.

****(*)James Mottram, The List, 24/01/2012

Carnage’s satire of bourgeois self-righteousness strikes a familiar chord, but fails to bring anything new to the dinner party.

***(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 29/01/2012

A quartet of pitch-perfect performances from a cast uniformly at its career best, together with a director on shockingly mischievous top form, this is a shot of pure, exhilarating cinematic malice. And if nothing else, it contains the most surprising puking sequence since Monsieur Creosote.

****(*)Adam Smith, Empire Online, 30/01/2012

There is maintained tension as to just how far this dispute will go, with the always uncomfortable, often hilarious discourse making for an immensely enjoyable 80 minutes.

****(*)Chris Fyvie, The Skinny, 30/01/2012

The picture becomes funnier as the aggression picks up but it is never quite as hilarious as it should be and, ultimately, it doesn’t have anything much surprising to say.

***(*)(*)Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 01/02/2012

The script may be full of banal, simplistic observations, but Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C Reilly and, especially, Christoph Waltz are all so deliciously unpleasant, it’s hard not to derive some satisfaction from watching them be nasty to one another for 80 minutes.

***(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 02/02/2012

Here is a four-handed tennis match played by champions and [Polanski] captures the game's every shot, every return and every telltale reaction in between.

****(*)Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, 02/02/2012

At its best, this is a spiky satire on contemporary bourgeois correctness; at its worst, it's a strained piece of upscale dinner theatre, a self-conscious controversy item by, for and about the chattering classes.

***(*)(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 02/02/2012

The whole affair is so airless, and joyless, that you soon resent every minute it's detaining you.

*(*)(*)(*)(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 03/02/2012

You wouldn't want to come within a mile of any of these people but, boy, are they fun to watch for a while.

****(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 02/02/2012

Carnage is the ideal place to explore the embarrassments of everyday – but it teaches us nothing about relationships and nothing particularly interesting about its characters.

David Edwards, Daily Record, 03/02/2012

The result is just as insignificant as the feud it depicts, but in the heat of the moment, it’s equally exhilarating.

***(*)(*)Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 03/02/2012

A short and trifling thing.

Kevin Maher, Little White Lies, 03/02/2012

Carnage is a scream, an outrageous comedy of manners that exposes prejudice, hypocrisy and lies among the middle classes, and is wonderfully unhindered by decorum.

Sunday Herald, 05/02/2012

I don't buy it. Polanski and Reza have made a sly black comedy about people who keep their emotions in check, followed by a silly farce about people who do the opposite.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent on Sunday, 05/02/2012

The work of a master, this wickedly funny film is beautifully orchestrated and controlled.

Philip French, The Observer, 05/02/2012

You do long for a more testing, fiercer discourse however; the gags remain light, albeit hilarious, and there’s a sense that this thickening tension cannot be captured as well on-screen as it can on-stage – which makes the whole thing come across as a little tame.

***(*)(*)Andrew, TV Bomb, 06/02/2012


Features about Carnage (15)

Roman Polanski's Carnage is a joyously unpleasant film

John Patterson, The Guardian, 28/01/2012

Carnage (15)

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

macrobert, Stirling from Friday March 16, 2012, until Sunday March 18, 2012. More info: www.macrobert.org

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