Johnny Mad Dog

Empire by

Grubby and yet vital, it stays with you.

Variety by Justin Chang

There's no doubt Johnny Mad Dog means to leave the viewer with a visceral impression of its terrors, on that it largely succeeds. Whether that accomplishment deserves praise is more of an open question.

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

An hour and half of comparable barbarity follows-all of it monotonous, none of it enlightening.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

An assaultive fiction about Liberian child soldiers made with boys and girls who actually fought in that country's recent war, left me wrung out - furious, confused, deep in thought.

Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton

Sauvaire, hesitating between a protest picture and a glam-squalid imagist orgy, only succeeds in scattering human rubble across the screen.

Boston Globe by Wesley Morris

Basically, talented French director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire has too much style on his hands. His film isn't as amorally grandiose as "City of God." Nor does it achieve the hulking tragedy of "Gomorrah."