Benedetta

"The flesh is weak but the third act is even weaker..."

"Every bit as outrageous as you'd expect..."

"Verhoeven may have to do some contrite murmuring in the confessional for this one."

"The narrative can feel a bit clunky... although Verhoeven throws in a few funny lines and enough action to keep Benedetta from descending into a long-winded sacrilegious exposé..."

"Paul Verhoeven’s lesbian nun drama pushes the envelope on sexuality, but proves fairly conventional in most other respects."

"It’s the tone that’s off here, as it is throughout a film which seems to wink at what it perhaps wants us to see as irony... while keeping both eyes firmly open."

"A heady, campy mix of religious imagery, corporeal abjectness, and masochism."

"Equal parts funny, sensual and incendiary, it's a committed work... even if its exploration of the war between body and spirit occasionally falls short."

"An enjoyable, provocative experience."

"As ever, (Verhoeven) is just as invested in salacious shock as he is in itchy profundity."

"Violent, erotic, and hollow..."

"Elegantly crafted, formidably well performed and as fascinating as it is lurid."

"Verhoeven brings more vitality to his work than many filmmakers half his age, and his screenplay (with David Birke) is a tasteless hoot..."

"The only blessing here is when it's over."

"A biting examination of Catholicism with a sly sense of humor."