[T]his intoxicatingly stylish work is all over the place, a hot mess at times so ravishing it sends shivers down to the toes. Unfortunately, it's also at times just plain crass and silly.

In the end, there's no question that what you're watching is a masterfully-made movie, albeit one that's easier to admire from afar than up close.

It's the kind of movie I'm glad [Ramsay] made because her interrogation of Joe's masculinity is the sort of thing endemic to the material that many male directors might have missed in an attempt to make the movie more "exciting."

A cryptically stunning crime drama casting Joaquin Phoenix as a contract killer whose comingled violence and conscience-stricken pain are complicated by PTSD as a Gulf War veteran...