Avis des critiques

A sparse, focused film; a Wild West (of Ireland)-style drama of frayed family ties and rural bloodshed exacerbated by economic circumstance, [Bring Them Down] doesn’t say much new, but what it does, it does effectively.

Well-shot and acted, Bring Them Down holds interest. But the kind of modern-day Jacobean tragedy it aims for is ultimately beyond the grasp of a scenario lacking that grandeur, which instead boils down to a series of sensational incidents ill-supported by tangible psychological motivation.

Andrews seems to aim for a parable that critiques cycles of masculine violence, but the result is too thin in characterization and narrative development to read as anything more than a repetitive exercise in misery.

What makes [Bring Them Down] so compelling are the central performances by Abbott and Keoghan, who take unsympathetic characters and give them nuance and variation... The film doesn’t always work on a narratively satisfying or depth-of-character level, but Andrews is fab at delivering a foreboding atmosphere where you can’t be certain what will happen next.

The most shocking element of Bring Them Down is the emotional truth at its core; Andrews’ observation of how difficult the cycles of abuse are to break is astute, and even the most sensational elements of the plot have a grim plausibility to them. But this is balanced by the empathy that Andrews and his cast show.

An impressive first feature... a bruising tale of vengeance accompanied by a savage, percussive score by Hannah Peel that sounds as though it was played on scrap metal and abandoned farm machinery.

As debuts go, [this] is absolutely a top-tier effort... Bring Them Down is a ruthless critique of familial expectation that highlights the insanity of gendered beliefs and the ways in which those beliefs can hold us back from becoming the people we are meant to be. Both the film and its director are definitely ones to watch.

Abbot is a strong yet unpredictable presence... Unsurprisingly, the standout is Keoghan, who delivers a chilling performance... [Bring Them Down] is violent but not gratuitous, or always graphic, in fact it achieves a lot with extremely effective sound design rather than blood and gore.

[A] highly promising debut by first-time director Christopher Andrews, a kind of Irish-accented Western enhanced by a fine cast including Christopher Abbott, Colm Meaney and Barry Keoghan.

The film is undeniably powerful, with fine performances, but the unremitting violence ends up feeling cartoonish and empty.

For all its ferocious focus, this is a relatively quiet movie that embraces its smallness. It doesn’t come at us as a teacher with a lesson, but more like a hard man in a pub who’s drunk just enough to loosen up and be vulnerable.

[In Bring Them Down,] the granular specifics of life as a rural Irish shepherd are brought so vividly to the screen that its story feels compelling throughout... This is a gnarly and fascinating thriller whose characters feel genuinely dangerous and unpredictable.