77
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 89Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenI Stand Alone uses a cannon ball to shatter the psychological horror at the heart of human society.
- 88San Francisco ExaminerWesley MorrisSan Francisco ExaminerWesley MorrisI Stand Alone has the ghastly stink of a rotting corpse. You can smell the cess as clearly as you can see the blood vessels striking like lightning around the pupils of its malefactor's eyes.
- 83The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasI Stand Alone, Gaspar Noé's raw, corrosive, and relentlessly provocative response—part companion piece, part critique—to Taxi Driver unfolds with rare force and clarity of vision, rarer still for a director's first feature.
- 80Time OutTrevor JohnstonTime OutTrevor JohnstonA film of alarming intensity.
- Bolstered by a fine performance from Nahon, this even merits comparisons with Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamSan Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamI Stand Alone ("Seul contre tous" in French) is a portrait of a pathetic soul, but it is also a cautionary tale. The butcher cannot be dismissed as a monster, nor is this a creep show. Something like the butcher's story can be found almost every day in newspaper crime reports.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonStrange and unsettling as it is, Noe's clarity of vision makes his film ignite. Like a slammed door or a scream of anger, it slaps you awake.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe movie's triumph -- if that's what it is -- is in the force of its assault. It takes one man's unbearable truth and bashes us in the skull with it.
- Between Nahon's pressure-cooker performance and the director's assaultive style (he's fond of brooding long takes interrupted by shotgun blasts of lurching, skip-frame edits and bold intertitles), the film would be an unbearable expression of rage, except that Noé's winking, nearly absurd sense of humor offers a disconcerting reminder of the unreality of it all.
- 42Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanCharlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanThis pretentious mediocrity from writer-director Gaspar Noe is "Taxi Driver" without depth or any humanizing of the main character. [25 Oct 1998, p.4F]