Its somber style captures the landscape of the Calabrian mafia, often with a certain realism and restrained acting, but unfortunately its narrative stumbles on a few predictable scenes. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 11, 2024

What separates this one from the pack, though, is its lush cinematography and evocative sound design.

| Original Score: B | Aug 10, 2021

With its surprising narrative twists and handsome visuals, Black Souls ends up being a far more original take on the Italian organised crime drama than first thought.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2019

Black Souls is a frustratingly slow burn affair for the most part, but the tension fair crackles from the screen once it gets going.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

Black Souls is the sort of authentically gritty Italian gangster film that does well at film festivals but is too challenging for commercial audiences here.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 26, 2017

Souls still feels very inside-baseball, trusting the audience to follow along.

| Jun 14, 2016

It reminds us both the word and the concept of "vendetta" came from Italy.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 20, 2016

Quietly commanding, this is the best Italian crime film since Gomorrah.

| Dec 11, 2015

In a certain kind of Italian mob picture, you expect blood feuds, family feasts, and generational conflict. Certainly Francesco Munzi's adaptation of a popular crime novel has all that, but it's more family drama than shoot-'em-up.

| Nov 12, 2015

This is a dynastic tale that gets more claustrophobic as it develops, as its web of vendetta-style recriminations closes in on the Carbone clan, goat farmers who have diversified into riskier and more profitable businesses.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 1, 2015

The plot may seem familiar from dozens of other Mafia movies but what is original here is the film's mournful tone and its absolute refusal to glamorize violence in any way.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2015

The focus moves fluidly around the key players, enriching the story, while the action is unflashy but precision-staged.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 29, 2015

In Black Souls the Italian mafia is leached of all glamour in a tale of three Calabrian brothers that grows stranger and more compelling by the minute.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 29, 2015

The film's long low hum of quiet pays off with an aptly shocking climax.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 29, 2015

This Mafia drama sets out to strip away any hint of glamour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2015

A measured, intelligent thriller that grows more gripping with each passing moment.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2015

There's no denying Munzi's hypnotic poetry and simmering macho cadence, but for all its bleakness, Black Souls could have been a gangbuster with a touch more soul.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 11, 2015

Just when you think there's no fresh blood to be found in the mob film along comes Black Souls from Italy to prove you wrong.

| Sep 11, 2015

Black Souls, a crime melodrama from Italy in the official festival competition, is a dark journey indeed -- but it does open with one corker of a gag.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 18, 2015

The tone is pseudo-Sopranos at times, but the oppressive ambience is grippingly sustained.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 7, 2015