Of all the shocks in the riveting and timely political thriller Paradise Now, the most unsettling may be the dignity bestowed on a pair of prospective Palestinian suicide bombers.Read Full Review »
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The New York Times: Stephen Holden
Along the way, Paradise Now sustains a mood of breathless suspense. Politics aside, the movie is a superior thriller whose shrewdly inserted plot twists and emotional wrinkles are calculated to put your heart in your throat and keep it there.Read Full Review »
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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Kenneth Turan
A powerful, poignant, provocative drama, it gets its strength from its dispassion, from an uncompromising determination to explain rather than justify or condemn, to put a human face on incomprehensible acts.Read Full Review »
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ROLLING STONE: Peter Travers
Shot in the West Bank, the film radiates authenticity. Even when he plays the action like a thriller, Abu-Assad is in search of a deeper truth.Read Full Review »
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Philadelphia Inquirer: Carrie Rickey
Paradise Now plays like Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," but with explosives.Read Full Review »
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ReelViews: James Berardinelli
The film offers food for thought, and reminds us that, in any war, one who understands the mindset of his opponent gains an important tactical advantage.Read Full Review »
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Village Voice: J. Hoberman
Paradise Now suffers from some odd continuity glitches and takes a few too many narrative curves en route to an overly convoluted ending, but the heart of the movie is as tense as the bus ride in Hitchcock's
"Sabotage."Read Full Review »
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Washington Post: Desson Thomson
Paradise may not change anyone's ideology, but it should convince some that, but for some deeply divisive views of religious morality, people are pretty much the same on either side of the holy fence.Read Full Review »
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Slate: David Edelstein
What makes this an important film is the way it puts you in that landscape and in those shoes, so that you almost understand how ordinary human beings can be impelled to do inhuman things.Read Full Review »
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Salon.com: Andrew O'Hehir
Paradise Now isn't a comfortable viewing experience, but it isn't meant to be. Inevitably, people's reactions to this subject matter -- and this filmmaker's handling of it -- are all over the map. All I can say is that I found it a tremendously compelling existential thriller that kept me up late the night I saw it, and it has resonated in my brain ever since.Read Full Review »
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