Drawing Restraint 9 is performance art as film: music--some quite irritating--is abundant, while dialogue is virtually non-existent. It's mostly a series of set pieces revolving around two "Occidental Guests" (Barney and Björk).

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 1, 2024

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 28, 2007

A work as vast, monstrous, and mysteriously graceful as a whale.

| Sep 25, 2007

Conventional storytelling may not be Barney's thing, but he has a superb cinematic eye, an incredible imagination and the wherewithal to make his visions happen.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 9, 2007

However enigmatic this all might be, there is no denying that Barney has assembled some rivetingly beautiful images.

| Mar 1, 2007

Drawing Restraint 9 belongs to an endangered species of experimental film that walks the line between challenging and alienating its audience.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2006

Offers no restraint on the writer/director's penchant for weird esoterica.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 25, 2006

A refreshing break from mind-numbing Hollywood movies, but it may fail to win you over

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 12, 2006

What is undeniable is that this, even more than Barney's previous work, is a film of outrageous, startling ingenuity and beauty.

| Aug 7, 2006

It is a series of lyrical ambiguities filtered through the prism of Japanese religious and whaling cultures that defy literal interpretation even as they are sculpted into physical significance.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 4, 2006

Throughout, Barney drowns the screen in arresting images ... that nail your eyes to the screen.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2006

Hugely tedious...this turgid, opaque, whale-obsessed fiasco might be described as one big, festering hunk of blubber.

| Original Score: F | Jun 13, 2006

Drawing Restraint 9 is Barney again creating something tenaciously abstract, but this time the result is more serene and approachable.

| Original Score: B | Jun 6, 2006

You're either on the boat or off the boat with something like this. But for those willing to brave the open water, it's an awe-inspiring ride.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 2, 2006

Sitting through the film's tedious unfolding can be an interesting mental exercise.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 1, 2006

...suffers from the loss of experiencing Barney's visual imagination for the first time.

| Original Score: B | May 27, 2006

Like John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy, a surreal, vaguely plausible explanation of why two people are crazy about each other.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 26, 2006

Doesn't advance the Barney oeuvre an inch past where he left it with his massive, megalomaniacal opus known as the Cremaster series.

| May 25, 2006

Barney and Björk certainly deserve each other; theirs is a match made purgatorial.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 25, 2006

Bjork appears to have been a good influence on Barney: The soundtrack, which she supervised and participates in, is well worth the time for fans of experimental music.

Full Review | May 19, 2006