The director, at the expense of his sanity, has completely transcended these needs and wants, attaining a higher power by way of cinema.

| Jun 6, 2024

A minor character at one point buoyantly asks, "What's 35mm?" Sono's mission is to create a film that answers this vacant, if innocent, question.

| Sep 24, 2019

Once the two plots merge, it leads to a massive sequence that's hilarious in its gleeful bloodlust and self-awareness.

| Original Score: 7.3/10 | Jun 27, 2019

As much as the film overflows with blood, the movie's other major problem is that it overflows with contrived plot and incident.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 28, 2018

Why Don't You Play in Hell is a frenzy of joy and colour, held together by an unrelenting disinterest in narrative logic.

| Aug 25, 2018

Their passion and enthusiasm, no matter how misguided, remind you of how exciting the movies are.

| Aug 21, 2018

In those moments that Why Don't You Play in Hell? lacks substance-which are numerous-Sono turns this into a virtue. He reminds us that cinema is at its most pleasurable when it touches something deep inside.

| Sep 26, 2017

This is pure midnight movie, all energy and whimsy and cartoonish displays of violence with yakuza soldiers dressed as samurai swordsmen.

| Jun 26, 2016

It's sentimentally absurd, violent, frenetic, trashy, romantic and filled with loud pop music.

| Original Score: C+ | May 24, 2016

Defined by a sanguineous sense of humor and unpretentious spirit, [it] makes for a stylish, self-aware, if somewhat lagging romp about film culture and creative ambitions.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 26, 2016

If you can make it till the end, there's one helluva payoff.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2015

"Why Don't You Play in Hell" is violent and irreverent, packed full with crazy ideas, and about as much bloody fun as you can have in a theater right now.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 19, 2014

Sono achieves a level of insanity that most filmmakers wouldn't even dare to challenge, turning Why Don't You Play In Hell? into a uniquely decadent cinematic treat that delivers exactly as advertised.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 21, 2014

Alternately exhilarating and tedious, Why Don't You Play In Hell? is Sono's tribute to moviemaking.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 10, 2014

Smiles and blood and pure, unadulterated affection for everything that cinema is capable of.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 7, 2014

A blood-soaked gang saga that builds to a madcap battle royal.

| Nov 7, 2014

Sono is so pure of heart, so full of enthusiasm and insane imagination and unwavering loyalty to the movie gods, long after the rest of us have stopped believing, that I forgive him everything.

| Nov 7, 2014

Delivers adrenaline, chutzpah, and fake blood by the bucket-load, continually confounding audience expectations while offering up a twisted valentine to moviemaking in general and the disappearing medium of 35mm film in particular.

| Nov 7, 2014

A middle-aged filmmaker's tribute to the kind of epic-sized gangster-romance he used to fantasize about making.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 7, 2014

A creative, barnstorming movie that feeds off mayhem in a most entertaining fashion, finding swirling inspiration from a swarm of cinematic highlights. It's original and absolutely furious.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 7, 2014