An up-close-and-personal look at a very large issue. It offers no solutions or searing insight as to how the opioid problem spun so far out of control. Instead, it is simply a well-made and well-acted look at life in a time of personal crisis.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 30, 2021

Castle in the Ground is a somber, if not sober, look at the bleak reality of the opioid epidemic...

| Dec 30, 2020

Castle in the Ground (written and directed by Joey Klein) is not an innovative or particularly well-paced film, but a nuanced performance by Alex Wolff makes the movie worth a look for people who are interested in seeing yet another 'wasted youth' story.

| Jul 18, 2020

Castle in the Ground is an exhausting, believable tale of lives in decline

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 24, 2020

Deeply dark and depressing film about the onset of the opioid crisis. Good work by Alex Wolff but not enough to salvage the film.

| Original Score: 4/10 | May 22, 2020

Most of the appeal here is watching the combo of Imogen Poots and Alex Wolff, even if it gets tough to watch what happens to them at times.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 16, 2020

Castle in the Ground proves a worthy showpiece for Wolff, who anchors the film with an assured low-key performance.

| May 16, 2020

Klein creates a vivid portrait of loss and mourning, of concurrently seeking connection and escape. But Castle in the Ground also functions as a fierce indictment of a corrupt system.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 16, 2020

Although it's delivered with well-meaning compassion, this gritty low-budget Canadian drama about opioid addiction doesn't explore much new ground.

| May 16, 2020

Committed performances and a stark, subterranean pallor suggest a strong grasp of such material, but there's a missing human component.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 16, 2020

It's more than the movie needs to get its point across. But it's not enough to sink this cautionary tale, which asks a disturbing question: when misery finally decides to part company, how does it manage to let go?

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2020

I liked this. It is unrelentingly bleak, but it is very well acted.

| May 15, 2020

It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma inside a bottle of pills.

| May 15, 2020

The last half of the film finds it derailing into a standard and frankly uninteresting thriller.

| May 15, 2020

Cast is superb in this riff of Edgar Allen Poe themes in modern-day opioid addiction drama.

| Original Score: A- | May 15, 2020

A downbeat depiction of the early days of the opioid epidemic, this drama doesn't offer much new in the story department, but the excellent, sustained performances make it very much worth seeing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2020

A harrowing look at the opioid epidemic, with strong turns from Wolff and Poots.

| May 15, 2020

Wolff gives the material his all. If only his efforts could compensate for the film's gradual descent into banality.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 15, 2020

Castle in the Ground is a bleak as hell, honest account of addiction. The climax is strangely executed, but the message delivered is clear.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 15, 2020

While Castle In The Ground presents a strange narrative and tonal changes it can't juggle, it's a film filled with great, understated performances.

| May 15, 2020