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Benedetta

100 Movies of 2021

Benedetta

2021

Paul Verhoeven

Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia, Olivier Rabourdin ...

6.3

5,384

Drama Italy, 17th Century. Benedetta Carlini arrives at the convent of Pescia, in Tuscany, and she claims to be able to perform miracles since she was young... The new thriller from Paul Verhoeven (Elle, Basic Instinct) will adapt Judith C. Brown's novel "Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (Studies in the History of Sexuality)" about a lesbian nun.

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"The director of Showgirls doesn't disappoint (...) Benedetta tips shamelessly down the exploitation route, but then shamelessness is thematically key to the whole enterprise (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"The flesh is weak but the third act is even weaker in Paul Verhoeven's transgressive but frustratingly self-conflicted period piece (...) One of Verhoeven’s tamer efforts"	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Paul Verhoeven has given us a bizarre nunsploitation drama, doing for pious young women in wimples what he did for exotic dancers in his cult classic Showgirls (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Lee Marshall Screendaily	"Any residual doubts that 82-year-old filmmaker Paul Verhoeven might have lost his taste for provocation are laid impiously to rest in Benedetta (...) [It] is a major step back from Verhoeven’s last feature"	POS
United States	Peter Debruge Variety	"This is an erotic film, full stop, and though 'Benedetta' is smarter in various respects than such sisters-in-exploitation as 'Put Your Devil Into My Hell' and 'The Killer Nun,' in others, it’s much, much dumber."	NEU
United States	Jordan Mintzer The Hollywood Reporter	"A film about a woman clawing her way to power in a male-dominated world (...) The beauty of Benedetta is that it never provides a straightforward answer to all of our questions, making it mostly a matter of faith."	POS
United Kingdom	Nicholas Barber BBC	"A restrained, handsome, and even traditional period drama (...) It's a thoughtful examination of politics and organised religion (...) The nudity and the blood-splashing are just a bonus (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Ben Kenigsberg rogerebert.com	"Verhoeven, still courting scandal at 82, did not disappoint (...) At times, it has the feel of a grand summation of all the director's ideas about eroticism, rationality, moral ambiguity, and faith. At once tongue-in-cheek and entirely serious"	POS
United Kingdom	Dave Calhoun Time Out	"You're in the wrong place if you expect too much more than surface fun from Paul Verhoeven's historical convent romp (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Martin Kudlac Screen Anarchy	"Verhoeven proves that he can craftily merge what would have been considered polar opposites, as 'Benedetta' is as close to a high-production value satire as it is to a nunsploitation drama"	POS
United States	Ben Croll The Wrap	"Verhoeven delivers beauty, belief and nun-on-nun sex (...) Surprising as it may be for a film that spends an inordinate amount of time centered on a holy relic carved into a dildo, but [it] is Verhoeven's most personal film"	POS
United States	Katie Rife AV Club	"'Benedetta' is both profane and sublime —no wonder some Catholics hate it (...) Paul Verhoeven's controversial new film is as lurid but more spiritual than you've heard"	POS
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"Sexy, satirical and spiritual (...) It takes a particular deftness for a movie to wear its intelligence and its irreverence so lightly. You might even call it grace"	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"Fascinating, garish, and compelling, 'Benedetta' dabbles in some of Verhoeven's career-long weaknesses while highlighting a great many of his strengths (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Cody Corrall Chicago Reader	"'Benedetta' is a biting examination of Catholicism with a sly sense of humor"	POS
United States	Adam Graham Detroit News	"It wouldn't be a Paul Verhoeven movie if there weren't some sort of lines being crossed (...) A committed performance from Efira"	NEU
United States	Jenny Nulf Austin Chronicle	"There is a raw sexiness that's deeply engaging and thrilling (...) An exploration of what it means to be female (...) Verhoeven's surprising restraint is what presents 'Benedetta' as one of his best (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Joshua Rivera Polygon	"A scandalous Catholic fable worth seeing (...) A film that gleefully dares viewers to find it blasphemous, an affront to some sensibility or another (...) A cinematic tract against a culture of repression"	POS
United Kingdom	Nicholas Barber BBC	"A substantial, sophisticated, yet briskly paced and always highly entertaining drama (...) The control that Verhoeven has over so many characters, threads and tones is almost a miracle in itself (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Natalia Keogan Paste Magazine	"The carnal Catholicism which permeates the film is at this point to be expected from the filmmaker —but equally so is the film's ability to utilize eroticism as a vehicle to examine pain, paranoia and power"	POS
	Fabien Lemercier Cineuropa	"Religion, power, manipulation, miracles and stigmata, truths and falsehoods, body and mind are all on the delectable, ambiguous, intelligent, black humour-filled agenda of Paul Verhoeven’s excellent film"	POS

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