Popular reviews

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★

  more "are men okay?" per minute than almost any other movie i've ever seen.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★

  look at these assholes.

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  Review by Vanina ★★★★ 14

  Well, damn, they don't really make 'em like this anymore, do they?

  While the plot to this film is virtually non-existent, with the film simply spanning 25 years in the lives of two college friends with extra focus on the women that come and go in their lives - what the film tries to do is incredibly ambitious. It's not very subtle at times, but I found it fascinating to be given an insight into how these two characters look at intimacy between people, and how these feelings change over the years. The film explores difficult psychological processes in a really honest way. I thought it was extraordinary how, without hammering it home, it highlights so many different views on…

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  Review by Katrina B 🐈‍⬛ ★★★★ 8

  Imagine being pressured into sex with Art Garfunkel

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  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★

  happy 50th anniversary to the slideshow presentation alternative comedy set <3

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  Review by chavel ★★★★★ 6

  Carnal Knowledge might have been the first film to really deal with sex addiction, and the first film to use the word c*u*n*t* in cinema. It also contains one of Jack Nicholson’s three best performances (I’m sure you’ve seen “Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Chinatown” by now). Nicholson ages twenty years in the movie, from his college years to middle age, the whole time keeping female conquests on something of a scorecard. The mid-section deals with what is likely the longest lasting relationship of his adult life (Ann-Margret is the sex kitten who yearns to be treated as something more). One shouting match exchange suggests Nicholson’s immaturity level as he eschews tenderness to instead bully, and his final scene suggests a pathetic attempt to go from limp to aroused. An important film, I think the best one from Mike Nichols (“The Graduate”) who directed from playwright/cartoonist Jules Feiffer’s script. Art Garfunkel, clumsy with women, is the best friend.

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★½ 28

  The first time Hollywood served up c*nt; “Carnal Knowledge” comes with an acrid aftertaste of unrequited male desire. 

  Mike Nichols’ 1971 film was possibly the first use of the ‘other’ four letter C-word in mainstream American cinema. The curse is spewed by Jack Nicholson’s womanizing bachelor, Jonathan, who berates his partner-fling-f*ckbuddy, “Answer me, you ball-busting castrating son of a c*nt bitch!” It’s an outburst born of ineptitude and insecurity; of a life spent pretending to have an answer for everything, when in fact Jonathan answers to nothing but his own hubris. 

  “Carnal Knowledge” unfolds over 25 years, beginning with Jonathan and his college buddy, Sandy (Art Garfunkel) falling for the same woman (Candace Bergen). The object of their mutual desire,…

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  Review by Jenna Ipcar ★★★★½ 5

  Beating The Heartbreak Kid to the punch by a year, this feels like almost a redo of The Graduate for people who were so busy identifying with Benjamin's sympathetic ennui that they missed out on how awful he actually is.

  Love the unbroken focus on women listening to men spouting pure horse shit. I honestly found it more powerful to force the audience to witness the 'masks' they're forced to wear, compelling you to look at them as the humans they are and do the work the men on screen refuse to: actually decode what their own repressed thoughts and emotions are. (Certainly more preferable than having a man try to write clunky dialogue to come out of their mouthes…

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  Review by shookone ★★★½

  this "relationship comedy" (as arte billed it) starts very annoying, especially on the audio/score level, but then slowly descends into a dark drama about toxic masculinity at a time when this term wasn’t really moulded yet. you keep on wondering how much of the real Jack Nicholson is in his character here. after all the 70s were the time when Polanski was staying in his crib. always felt Jack might be one that got away with the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll lifestyle back then. this movie here might be a hint, who knows.

  women are objectified, by the protagonists aswell as formally within the storyline. it’s a mans movie in the wake of Bitter Moon (well the other way round…

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 4

  There are directors with a unique style that comes out in their films immediately, while others take multiple films to realize this characteristic. Mike Nichols is one of these directors.

  Apparently, this film has a low-key fan following with some hailing it as the director's finest work, although I sympathize more with critics like Gene Siskel, who at the time called it a "one note story", so although this film shows traces of Mike's early and late work, especially his collaboration with Elaine May, it lacks the nuance and depth of his most famous films. Though it was rather fun to see Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson play what would usually be the adult versions of horny teen youngsters in…

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  Review by DallasFrance ★★★★★ 2

  (spoiler-free dialogue) 

  
  Ann-Margret was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Carnal Knowledge. She should have won two. Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and Sandy (Art Garfunkel) are college roommates majoring in Patriarchaeology. Art is the “nice guy” whose GPA-when it comes down to it-is almost as high as Jonathan’s.

  For the first half of the film, Jonathan and Sandy are dating the same girl, though only Jonathan knows it. Jonathan is the capital A Alpha, and by the time Bobbie (Ann-Margret) enters Jonathan’s life after college, he’s already got the corner office at the Waddaprickdisguyis Law Firm.

  Jonathan and Bobbie start off hot and heavy, and it’s implied that they’ve been together for a while in their second scene together.…

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  Review by nora ★★★★½ 2

  one of those movies that begs to be seen another time. as i was watching it i kept realizing how basically EVERYTHING in this movie looks back to the dialogue between art garfunkel and jack nicholson during the opening credits and i wished i had the text in front of me so that i could annotate it. (can you tell i miss being in college?)

  when i wasn’t thinking about that i was trying to decide whether or not this is a critique of misogyny or if it’s actually misogynistic and tbh i think it’s a very complex mixed bag. on a basic level it comes down on the side of deconstructing and examining the ingrained toxicity of its characters,…