80
This muted mobster story reminds us that the ties that bind can also gag you, garrote you and slowly deaden your soul.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
The father and son chemistry give this blackly-comic slice of social realism a dose of Ealing-lite wit.
40
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Strong performances and understated cinematography help balance the self-conscious editing, but ultimately the entire affair feels false.
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Down Terrace is long on talk but generates its own internal rhythms and pace that makes it feel bracing and vibrantly alive.
75
It's full of funny stuff, from a hitman forced to drag along his 3-year-old when he can't get a sitter, to one of the goons being asked, "Do you have a Web presence?"
70
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
Down Terrace has frequently been appreciated as "The Sopranos meets Mike Leigh." But a more fruitful comparison might be to last year's stand-out British satire "In the Loop": In both films, verbal aggression makes for the biggest laughs and the surest signs of moral decay.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen
The production comes by its authenticity naturally -- and not only because several of the cast members (fascinating faces all) happen to be related.
75
When Down Terrace gets in a good groove, Wheatley and Hill's dialogue is both funny and pointed.
70
Cleverly channeling gangster tropes through a British kitchen-sink soap opera, TV scribe-helmer Ben Wheatley has concocted a nifty black comedy, with a little help from his friends, in Down Terrace.
50
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
However persuasively acted, this mélange of cinéma vérité, slapstick and murder - whose story has a lot in common with the recent Australian gangster film "Animal Kingdom" - has too many narrative gaps for its pieces to cohere satisfactorily.