The movie is a blistering and important jeremiad about the woeful ways that far too many Americans treat children.

| May 25, 2022

A flat plot description would make "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things" sound like one of the most harrowing films ever made. However, Argento presents it with a lyricism that makes its horrors bearable.

| Jan 29, 2019

Marks [Asia Argento] as a far more adventurous and even risk-addicted filmmaker than her famous father Dario.

| Original Score: B | Nov 9, 2008

[The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things] has a deceptively desultory structure where no moral system or 'new daddy' seems to hold much water upon introduction, but each accumulates ideas which make an atavistic reappearance at the most inopportune of tim

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 6, 2006

To appreciate or even tolerate the film, you must separate yourself from the characters and the material. What's unfortunate is that the movie is too well made to let you do just that.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 25, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006

Reeks of a project desperate for edgy credibility.

| Apr 13, 2006

Argento's film is arguably exploitative, but its real-life horrors are effectively authentic.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 7, 2006

... shapeless, excessively lurid and often unpleasant, with Argento shamelessly vamping the white-trash junkie mother and truck-stop hooker.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 6, 2006

JT LeRoy may be a scam, but Argento's scalding treatment of adults behaving badly is as real as cold French fries in a West Virginia truck stop.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 3, 2006

We see the horrors of Jeremiah's life, but there's no opportunity to connect with the character; it's just a litany of abuse with no meaning and no redemption.

| Mar 28, 2006

Trying a bit too hard to be a modern cult classic, but it's clear that Argento's heart is in the right place.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 25, 2006

Now the fabricated story of a boyhood that included abandonment, rape and near constant fear and humiliation is a movie. The result is unwatchable.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 24, 2006

I don't know if the movie follows the book closely, but if it does, you kind of have to wonder how Leroy or Albert or whoever it was made such a splash in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 24, 2006

Vile beyond redemption.

| Original Score: 0.5/4 | Mar 24, 2006

[H]as a sucker-punch power more potent that what most movies specifically designed as 'horror' can muster...

| Mar 23, 2006

[Argento's] fast-moving, devil-may-care filmmaking keeps The Heart Is Deceitful dangling just above its relentlessly harrowing subject matter.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2006

The story conveys so much emotion that I found myself wanting to yell at the screen, "Leave that boy alone!"

| Original Score: B- | Mar 23, 2006

Argento has made a ferocious film including her own committed performance, but like her character, she loses control in the final goings.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 20, 2006

It's a taxing bit of exploitation, which, although you're glad to know it's a work of fiction, doesn't exactly make a case for itself as art.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 18, 2006