44
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThe atmospheric, richly detailed La Mentale has terrific vitality with its volatile mixture of alternating camaraderie and savagery.
- 70L.A. WeeklyJon StricklandL.A. WeeklyJon StricklandIf the plot comes off more like a reworking of Scorsese’s tales of Italian-American mobsters, Boursinhac nevertheless shows a sure hand with his story, lingering on the handsome, lost face of Dris as his world falls apart around him.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDoesn't have much time for refinement of image or elegance of plot. What it's got instead is an insider's feel for the local, excitable hoodlum life and speech.
- 60New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerIt might seem as though there is nothing new to be done with the crime thriller, but The Code (La Mentale), directed by Manuel Boursinhac and written by Bibi Naceri, provides a new twist.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenAlthough it offers no new angles on the story engines of loyalty and revenge, the French film boasts an intriguing milieu and the off-center, hair-trigger intensity of Samy Naceri as a crime boss.
- 60TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghBoursinhac and Bibi Naceri throw all the usual elements into the pot: Economic inequality, ethnic tensions, feverish family ties and the titular criminal code, which everyone invokes and everyone agrees is a load of claptrap.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceWhile Melville's films strike a pose of ironic bloodlessness, The Code attends to a thick stew of (soap-) operatic emotion, turning each internecine skirmish into an occasion for melodramatic brooding. Melville once described his films as comedies; The Code, unfortunately, knows no such wit.
- 20Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternChoose to pass this one up.