Child of God

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Child of God

R

2014

1h 44m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

42%

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50 Reviews

26%

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1,000+ Ratings

In the 1960s Tennessee, a violent loner loses his last vestige of humanity as he enters a downward spiral of madness, crime and degradation.

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Critics Consensus

An obviously reverent adaptation that fails to make a case for the source material being turned into a movie, Child of God finds director James Franco outmatched by Cormac McCarthy's novel.

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Jonathan Romney

Film Comment Magazine

09/15/2014

With Child of God, Franco has come up with something distinctive that both captures the atmosphere of McCarthy's neo-Gothic universe and suggests a consolidation on the director's As I Lay Dying.

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Alonso Duralde

TheWrap

08/03/2014

Beautifully shot, well acted, and the score is lovely, but the film has nothing to say about the human degradation in which it wallows. If you're gonna make me smell dung for two hours, at least fertilize my lawn.

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Andrew O'Hehir

Salon.com

08/01/2014

There's no denying Franco's ambition, and in "Child of God" you can see evidence (almost for the first time) that he's reaching for something he may one day attain.

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Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

08/30/2019

2.5/5

There's a captivating performance and a queasy ambience to the film that at least makes it a sober sort of hillbilly horror.

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Forrest Cardamenis

The Film Stage

06/23/2016

B

Child of God toes the line between success and failure - but, ultimately, leans into success, and occasionally threatens to leap into it entirely.

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Mark Jackson

Epoch Times

06/13/2016

3/5

Ultimately the movie's message is that community is sacred, all God's children should be cared for, and the destitute need a human net to save them from descent into madness.

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William B.

@A1reviews Dec 28

Almost a 4 star movie. It's pretty good it's pretty weird. Not for kids! The main actor is very good, plot excellent

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Trish K

@RT89574836 Oct 9

Extremely disturbed psychopath. You can see this type of character on the daily news, don't care to see it a movie. James Franco is a sick a**hole.

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Don S

@RT67300157 04/08/2025

Great movie but definately not in the Hollywood mold.

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Ron R

@RT76285883 08/02/2023

Sad and disgusting. No redeeming value that I can see.

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N L

@RT67044741 06/24/2023

The guy takes a dump on camera. What else do we need in a movie?

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dave s

@RT68722908 08/18/2021

James Franco has to be given credit for tackling adaptations of literary works that nobody else would consider touching, including Cormac McCarthy's Child of God. In the film, Lester Ballard (Scott Haze), a repugnant and merciless sociopath, roams the woods of rural Tennessee with a rifle in his hand and malice in his heart. The movie is worth watching for Haze's incendiary performance as the frightening Ballard, a man devoid of any human emotions other than blind rage. Franco's direction is, for the most part, effective, but he sometimes borders on pretentious with the inconsistent use of fades to end scenes and the number of close-ups of the barrels of guns and the barren branches of trees. It's a bit of a mixed bag but Haze's performance makes it worth watching.

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James Franco

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Lester Ballard

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Synopsis

In the 1960s Tennessee, a violent loner loses his last vestige of humanity as he enters a downward spiral of madness, crime and degradation.

Director: James Franco
Producer: Caroline Aragon, Vince Jolivette, Miles Levy
Screenwriter: James Franco, Vince Jolivette
Distributor: Well Go USA
Production Co: Rabbit Bandini Productions
Rating: R (Nudity|Language|Aberrant Sexual Content|Some Violence)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 1, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 27, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $37.9K
Runtime: 1h 44m

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