63
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Village VoiceChris KlimekVillage VoiceChris KlimekIf Simon Killer's tragic drift is predictable, the seedy particulars still engross. And the storytelling is first-rate.
- 90The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThough the film’s ice-cold blend of the cerebral and the atavistic can be off-putting, it enables a queasy portrait of moral disengagement that lingers long after Simon has slipped from the screen.
- 75The PlaylistWilliam GossThe PlaylistWilliam GossA noir-tinged, noose-tightening ordeal [that] confirms Antonio Campos, if not the entire Borderline Films outfit, as a filmmaker/team to be reckoned with.
- 75Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe film has many elements of a thriller, but ultimately Antonio Campos's interest lies much more in profiling, yet never over-determining, his moody protagonist.
- 75The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurraySimon Killer is a sensual experience that asks the audience to question what it sees and hears. In that way, Campos takes all-too-common feelings of loneliness and disorientation, and shows how they can shade into madness.
- 60VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeConsidering how graphic Campos is willing to be, "restrained" may not the right word for his approach, and yet Simon Killer withholds so much that some amount of frustration is sure to follow.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichEven at its most affecting, Simon Killer rarely seems like more than a cinema-du-Gaspar-Noé simulacrum. The languorous long-takes, dissociative sound design and strobe-light scene transitions meant to mirror this emotional con artist’s skewed view of the world are anxiety-of-influence hand-me-downs through and through—viscera without vision.
- 20New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSort of “An American Psycho’s European Vacation,” this indie dramatic thriller mixes sex and violence and still winds up dull.
- 10The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThis lushly and pretentiously made drama about a young American whose worst instincts are unleashed during a stay in Paris endeavors to entice with details of the seedy underworld of La Pigalle but is a turn-off in almost every respect.