82
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91The A.V. ClubRoxana HadadiThe A.V. ClubRoxana HadadiThe film’s as compassionate as it is unsettling, and as provocative as it is poignant.
- 90VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThere Is No Evil comes across as four films for the price of one, none of its segments anemic, and each contributing fresh insights to the paradoxes of capital punishment in Iran.
- 90Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleWhen juxtaposed against a history of Iranian cinema that has often relied on child-centric allegory and non-specific narrative to make its societal critiques, There Is No Evil practically blisters with the intensity of specifically living in Iran as it exists now, as a state once believed to carry out the most executions of any country outside China.
- 88Slant MagazineDiego SemereneSlant MagazineDiego SemereneThe film grapples with the various shapes that guilt and honor (or lack thereof) might take in a context of state-sanctioned death.
- 88RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireRogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireThe pleasures of watching There Is No Evil—a title that grows more piercingly ironic as the film progresses—are considerable.
- 78Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisThe Iranian production There is No Evil (Persian title: Satan Doesn’t Exist) may not revive the portmanteau film to its former glory (the comic 1963 Italian Oscar-winning trilogy Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow being a stellar example), but it’s a comparatively solid quartet of short films that critically examine the country’s dehumanizing system of capital punishment, putting a human face on the citizen-executioner asked to carry out the all-too-frequently enacted death penalty.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThough the message comes across loud and clear, the four tales suffer from being narratively uneven, making the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time seem long indeed.
- 60Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallAlthough There Is No Evil is a brave and impassioned work, the seams show.