60
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Time Out LondonGeoff AndrewTime Out LondonGeoff AndrewThough the writer/director is working abroad and telling a linear story, it's immediately apparent - from the measured pacing, the immaculate compositions and elegant camera movements, the audacious ellipses and the inspired use of music - that this is a hallmarked Davies film. As such, it is extraordinarily moving, notably in a simple, underplayed death scene. Gena Rowlands' performance is a marvel of subtle nuances.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThe Neon Bible is elegiac, formal and sometimes boldly stylized. The result is an extraordinary experience in which the familiar is made deeply and effectively unsettling.
- 75Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThere are many fleeting poetic moments in The Neon Bible--moments so ecstatic that you may feel yourself rising off your seat. And if much of the rest of the movie tends to be clunky as narrative, that's a small price to pay for pieces of enlightenment you can happily carry around inside your head for months.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannThe Neon Bible is a lovely, rewarding film, but it requires some work and some faith on the part of the viewer. Davies' rhythms and camera moves are as slow and stately as ever -- the antithesis of most Hollywood films -- and the moments of crystallized emotion he achieves are sometimes separated by dull patches and self-conscious artiness.
- 63San Francisco ExaminerSan Francisco ExaminerThe Neon Bible is one of those movies that isn't devoid of art or redeeming features, but nevertheless deserves some kind of warning label: Those suffering from depression or a short attention span should proceed with extreme caution.
- 63Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrThe Neon Bible doesn't always supply the depth or underpinning its images demand, but there's nice work in it, and it won't bore you. [19 Apr 1996, p.55]
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenWhen a poetically inclined film fixates on the same image too often, it is a sign that the movie may have succumbed to its own dreamy esthetic. That is one of the problems of The Neon Bible, the English director Terence Davies's hallucinatory portrait of the American South half a century ago.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineIt sounds like an overfamiliar brand of Southern Gothic, but British director Terence Davies adds some distinctive touches of visual poetry.
- 50Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisDavies tells David's story in a striking series of tableaux and dioramas, all impeccably executed to the last detail. As in Martin Scorsese's work, there's a great deal of control in Davies' directorial style, to the point that it seems totally lacking in spontaneity. But unlike a Scorsese movie, The Neon Bible implodes rather than explodes.