New Order

"New Order proves to be the most punishing entry in a difficult oeuvre, which may sound harsh, but isn't meant as an insult."

"Audiences might conceivably be divided on the vicious gut punch of Franco's approach, but as a call for more equitable distribution of wealth and power, it's terrifyingly riveting."

"A masterclass in high-anxiety, politically questionable cinema."

"Some extraordinary filmmaking here, but New Order is too unapologetically bleak to recommend."

"You’re not here to enjoy yourself, but you can admire the craft."

"Bleaker and more acidic than you may have guessed."

"A ruthlessly barbaric vision of social breakdown with melt-your-face-off intensity."

"A smug exploitation film as allegory for a divided nation."

"The brutality of New Order's dystopian Mexican state may be hypothetical, but Franco's sordid manipulations are all too real."

"Writer-director Michel Franco wields the story like a scalpel... (in) his diabolically imaginative dystopian fever dream..."

"Franco pursues this nihilistic thesis with a single-mindedness that one might call rigorous if it didn't also feel so lazy."

"What follows—instances of mass murder, sexual assault, utter cruelty and a mounting body count that Franco seems dangerously pleased to put on display—is hard to watch, even though it is absorbing, impressively sure-handed filmmaking."

"A dubious drama populated by sympathetic if sketchily drawn elites and an undifferentiated and othered mob."

"Michel Franco reminds you that the revolution will not be televised — it will be turned into tone-deaf, feel-bad posturing."

"A little too enamored of its own chaos and cynicism to reach a coherent message."

"Michel Franco leaves no room for sympathy or redemption in this violent, cynical thriller..."