Every time things heat up, the film down-shifts just long enough to keep you from getting too engaged in the characters, some of whom disappear for reels before popping up again.
- Jim Schembri, 3AW, October 19, 2012
The film as a whole is no classic. Between sporadic bursts of very intense violence, there are often drifty, drowsy scenes that struggle to justify their relevance.
- Leigh Paatsch, Herald Sun (Australia), October 12, 2012
This Prohibition-era crime drama boasts bravura performances, unforgettable characters, moments of shocking violence, and enough in-your-face entertainment for three films.
- Erin Free, FILMINK (Australia), October 12, 2012
In the climax, Hillcoat brings it all back to where it began: as a folk tale. You could read it as a tale of the triumph of the small businessman.
- Julie Rigg, MovieTime, ABC Radio National, October 12, 2012
Utterly untroubled by any expectation to entertain - or even mildly engage - the audience, Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave take a stroll through 1930s Virginia with the enthusiasm of beleaguered berry-pickers rather than raucous bootleggers.
- Simon Miraudo, Quickflix, October 10, 2012
John Hillcoat's tale of Prohibition bootleggers boasts excellent performances, but doesn't feel as focused or nuanced as The Proposition (his last collaboration with Cave).
- Ed Gibbs, The Sun Herald, October 07, 2012
You may be laughing out loud at the very moment you're also feeling appalled.
- David Gritten, Daily Telegraph, September 06, 2012
The center of narrative gravity is hard to locate; for whom are we rooting, and does anything really ripple outward from this nasty local fight?
- Anthony Lane, New Yorker, September 03, 2012
An uneven mix of impressively executed, violent clichés about good ol' boys defending the American right to flout the law.
- Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine, September 03, 2012
Fans of The Proposition will have to settle for sublimely evil performances by Gary Oldman (as a murderous rival) and Guy Pearce (as a government agent) and a large quotient of gut-wrenching violence.
- J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader, August 31, 2012
With a dynamite cast, an iconic screenwriter in rocker Nick Cave and an Aussie director in John Hillcoat, you assume a new classic. What you get is an ambitious try.
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, August 30, 2012
You can sense the filth, and smell the rust, and feel the ingrained poverty that might well convince a family of survivors (of World War I and the Spanish flu) to make their fortune selling moonshine to their neighbors.
- John Anderson, Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2012
There's something at the movie's heart that remains flimsy and inauthentic, a kid in his older brother's ill-fitting shoes.
- Dana Stevens, Slate, August 30, 2012
Much of the action may be nearly as grim as in director John Hillcoat's previous feature, "The Road" - "Lawless" is very bloody - but the scenery and production design are a whole lot nicer.
- Mark Feeney, Boston Globe, August 30, 2012
This isn't to say that there's not enough here, but just don't look for it all to add up.
- Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies, August 30, 2012
I can only admire this film's craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, August 29, 2012
A pumped-up, Hollywood-flavoured neo-Gothic Western delivering knockout performances and raw, corporeal thrills.
- Catherine Bray, Film4, March 04, 2013
Lawless is a compellingly nutty and uneven gangster film.
- Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine, November 28, 2012
[It] is thoroughly corrupt in its lip-smacking love of violence and has a script, written by Nick Cave, so transparent it verges on the comic.
- Antonia Quirke, Financial Times, September 06, 2012
Lawless is filled with forbidding shadows and verdant abundance, contrasting the indifference of nature with the violence of the humanity within it.
- Keith Phipps, AV Club, August 30, 2012
