Carlito's Way

“Though the story in Carlito’s Way is treated in a fatalistic sense, the moment-to-moment, frame-to-frame experience is anything but rigid and stodgy from over-determination. It sings, dances, punches, slinks, embeds. It moves like the luxurious tracking shots that punctuate the film.”

Zach Campbell, Slant Magazine · 100

“Utterly compelling - Sean Penn is a powerhouse in support - and with a railway station set - piece in which De Palma actually betters what was his previously Untouchable effort.”

Kim Newman, Empire · 100

“Penn, with curled hair and wire-rims, makes a brilliant, slippery high-end shyster; his modulated hysteria is amazing. So is Brian De Palma’s direction. Few films actually made in the disco era can match the kinetic allure of this 1993 production, which has a bluesy undertow all its own.”

Michael Sragow, The New Yorker · 90

“Carlito's Way, like Casualties of War and Mission: Impossible, seems to stand at a nexus between commercial fealty and directorial idiosyncrasy; it's a sort of half-breed film that exudes personal vision but functions satisfactorily for the multiplex crowds at the same time.”

R.L. Shaffer, IGN · 90

“The acting here, by Sean Penn, is a virtuoso tour de force - one of those performances that takes on a life of its own.”

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times · 88