Metacritic reviews

The final few scenes of The Kill Room stretch the satiric premise to the breaking point, but by then we’re content to go along with the ride and enjoy the dark humor and the fine work of the entire cast, led by Jackson and Thurman in twin knockout performances.

While the killer with a heart of gold trope works to varying degrees, mostly because of Manganiello’s unvarnished presence, the thematic heft of The Kill Room is enough to make it an intriguing and entertaining early work.

Thurman’s scenes only get better when she’s paired with Jackson. The duo handles their dialogue like a walk in the park, and you can tell that The Kill Room tries to make the most of it.

If screen comedies are poker games, then Paone, working from a script by Jonathan Jacobson, leaves a lot of money on the table, not properly playing the wonderful hand she’s dealt. But The Kill Room, which also needed a better title, has enough funny going on to recommend it if you don’t think of all it might have been.

Despite the lack of kinetic energy and well-developed characters, the movie offers a rather humorous take on the art world and its criminal underbelly with characters that are enjoyable to watch.

While the supporting cast is replete with performers we like to see — Debi Mazar, Larry Pine, and Thurman’s daughter, Maya Hawke, as a feminist artist — the script, in the end, does little to support them.

Nicol Paone’s flat direction and Jonathan Jacobson’s listless screenplay leave the cast painting by numbers.