"The Heart is Deceitful" evokes the reality of child abuse more closely than any other film I have seen." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The Heart... " is one of those films that comes along every blue moon and slaps the shit out of you with it's brutal honesty and real-life tragedies, taking you to the brink of tears as a child is abused to an uncomfortable easiness as he makes the best of his circumstances. Tenderly exposing the miseducation of a young boy linked through fate with an anything but traditional upbringing, the film focuses upon that multi-faceted "love" which inspires the most intense emotions in all that makes up this world, exposing it in a unique and often times disturbing light." Movies Online
"...one of the most disturbing and unsettling films that I have seen in recent memory...powerful, and emotionally complex..." Hope Needles, The Daily Colonial
"No one -- either in the film or in the audience -- emerges unscathed from Heart's portrayal of lost innocence and a world without hope." Allison C. Keene, Creative Loafing.com
"...ferocious..." Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
"Through laser-sharp definition of these characters, Director Asia Argento drives home the importance of the family and of nurture. Yes, T.H.I.D.A.A.T. is a "family" movie." The Manhattan Offender
"Adapted from JT LeRoy's celebrated novel with an uncomfortable absence of compromise, the film takes as much courage (or masochism) to watch as it did to make it." Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
"[The Heart Is Deceitful...] has a bleak tenderness that reaches out to us, keeps us gripped, and lingers long in the memory afterwards." Rich Cline, Shadows On The Wall
"...[a] film [that] is meant to challenge and inspire and piss people off and I assure you that it did all of those things to me in spades." Peter Sobczynski, efilmcritic
Jimmy Bennett and Ben Foster
"As tough-minded and grown-up a film about child abuse as Gregg Araki’s ‘Mysterious Skin’, Argento’s second feature chronicles the physical and sexual abuse and neglect endured by a young boy saddled with a hopeless, strung-out mother. Hard to watch but gorgeously photographed, this adaptation of novelist JT Leroy’s autobiographical Southern Gothic sometimes reaches ‘Ratcatcher’-like heights in envisioning child’s-eye dreams and nightmares...Argento also contributes a note-perfect performance as the miserable, monstrous, and – in her own sick way – loving mother." J Win, Time Out London
"Argento revels in her evilness, seduces you and manipulates you like Sarah does her son: you hate her, but like a child with nowhere else to go, you cling to her, because not to do so is to put yourself into even more intolerable situations." Mary Ann Johanson, Flick Filosofer
"...relentless abuse and misery set against beautiful, dreamy cinematography; impossibly sympathetic portrayals of the most repellent characters...[a] beautifully nightmarish vision of America's apocalypse, a mother-son bond must survive itself above all things." Anton Biddell, Movie Gazzette
"...a truthful look into the lives of both a mother and son...the emotion of the book is excellently carried over into film." Twitch
"...as captivating as it is perverse. The acting is exquisite..." Eric Lurio, Entertainment Insiders
"Argento’s translation is haunting and tragic." Michael Sheridan, Tale Slate
"True or not, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a sincere yet stylized rendition of a terribly sad story." Trinie Dalton, Amazon.com
"It is the word made into flesh that is most unsettling when one sees this beautifully crafted motion picture..." David Lamble, Bay Area Reporter
"Public relations tricks aside, this is a good story...a brick in the wall of children’s rights and perhaps part of the key to unlocking the child in us all." Ron Wilkinson, Monsters & Critics
"...powerful and moving, fascinating, challenging and bold. Isn’t that what cinema at its best should be?" Matt Adcock, Dark Matters
STILL CAPS
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Song: Beautiful Plateau by Sonic Youth, featured in the film
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