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

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

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

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

Though the content of the typical mob movie can shock with its brutality and perversity, the tragic arc ultimately reinforces traditional values while allowing a vicarious indulgence in the taboo.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 21, 2015

Writer-director Franceso Munzi has particularized the familial relationships enough for it to stand on its own. (As Tolstoy wrote, all happy crime families are the same but each unhappy crime family is unhappy in its own way.)

| May 7, 2015

Black Souls is above all the story of a family divided, a fraternal knot that can be untied only through tragedy.

| Original Score: A- | May 7, 2015

Solemn, strong Italian film about family, crime and the deep roots of revenge offers widescreen visions and intimate murders, making for a very different Mafia saga.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 6, 2015

Broodingly effective as a crime drama because it's driven by family dynamics as much as the mechanics of transgression.

| Apr 23, 2015

A somber piece of film poetry about men so invested in a rigid notion of honor and revenge they become trapped in an endless loop of violence.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 16, 2015

Tales of Italians and organized crime are, quite frankly, starting to wear thin after years of overuse. But "Black Souls" has a deep and startling soulfulness that, despite its shocking conclusion, is profoundly moving.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 16, 2015

It may not quite have the explosive charm of some of the classics, but Black Souls is an elegant, unsettling addition to the gangster-movie canon. Get on its unique wavelength, and you may find it transfixing.

| Apr 12, 2015

"Black Souls" isn't quite the great film the international cinema buzz machine has touted it to be in some circles, but it is a very good one, the kind that ends with such gravity that you feel its weight for a while after.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2015

"Black Souls" is an ominous, well-acted portrait of an ingrown feudal society of violence, retaliation and deadly machismo.

| Apr 9, 2015

Black Souls is chilling, but it's also familiar.

| Original Score: B | Apr 9, 2015

The makers of Black Souls, a superior Italian gangster movie, deserve praise for executing with atypical sensitivity a generic times-are-changing/nostalgia-for-an-imaginary-chivalrous-yesteryear scenario.

| Apr 7, 2015

Black Souls... chooses the classic route of Greek tragedy, which is a natural match for the hard-faced, tight-lipped characters who spiral into general disaster.

| Apr 6, 2015

Scenes are allowed to build slowly, and while at first the narrative seems difficult to fully grasp, the elements all fall into place.

| Apr 6, 2015