Ferrara uses the absence of light as a presage of fear and terror [...]. This is how Padre Pio effectively plays with the audience as well; when a scene gets darker, it gradually escalates into something strange, sinister even.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 7, 2024

Padre Pio, ironically, is too reverent and uncomplicated for a biopic on the canonized firestarter.

| Jul 5, 2024

The sins and injustices of the outside world find terrible expression in St Pio of Pietrelcina’s body and imperfect expression in Ferrara’s 22nd feature.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2024

Confused and unsatisfying, Padre Pio had the potential to be a gripping religious biopic in the vein of Martin Scorsese’s Silence. As it is, two once-promising talents squander an interesting premise, with the audience being taken to cinematic purgatory.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 29, 2024

Any authenticity is skewered by the decision to shoot in Italian-accented English, meaning that much of the dialogue sounds as hammy as a leg of prosciutto.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 28, 2024

Padre Pio is an unholy mess.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 26, 2024

Go and see Padre Pio if you think you’re hard enough. It’s mostly true and it’s an eye-opening watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 25, 2024

A character study that breaks free of its biographical chains, Padre Pio shows that Ferrara has still got it, 50 films in.

| Original Score: 7.8/10 | Oct 29, 2023

It’s not immediately clear what drew Ferrara to this story or this style... The formalities of neo-realism actually seem to suit him

| Sep 19, 2023

Dedicated in the closing credits to the people of Ukraine, Padre Pio aims to restore a measure of faith, not in humanity, which is manifestly wicked, but in the person who suffered and died for all.

| Jul 7, 2023

Choppy, unpolished and undeveloped, Padre Pio will certainly divide audiences.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 5, 2023

Replete with bold catholic imagery and painful moments of confrontational longing that recalls Ferrara‘s best work, Padre Pio is still a few rosaries short of a blessing.

| Jun 16, 2023

A film that has a certain raw power and intensity, but is simply too strident, fragmented and opaque to move us to the indignation it’s apparently aiming for.

| Original Score: C | Jun 10, 2023

This messy drama seems to have the bare bones of good ideas, but it would have been better if the film was about either Padre Pio or the rise of fascism, not both.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 8, 2023

Padre Pio is often as rewarding as it is challenging.

| Jun 8, 2023

Ferrara’s Padre Pio is not the hero of his movie, far from it. But his sainted Pio does pose moral quandaries that may require heroic effort to reconcile.

| Jun 7, 2023

It's not terrible -- I just can't make sense of it.

| Jun 6, 2023

It's like two totally different movies have been slammed up against each other.

| Jun 6, 2023

Abel Ferrara isn’t interested in the finer points of history nor does he bother with three-dimensionality or even decent acting for that matter.

| Jun 6, 2023

The uncomfortable pleasures found in the grotesque interplay of LaBeouf’s notoriety and LaBeouf’s performance aren’t enough to save Padre Pio from itself.

| Original Score: 3.2/10 | Jun 6, 2023