"Simple storytelling at its best, character driven, beautiful and cinematic. The ending of that movie, if you’re not feeling good and your heart’s not twisted up and then melted back together then, I mean, I dunno, you don’t have a heartbeat. It’s one of the best feelings walking away from a piece of cinema. It’s all chalked up to really great characters. A really simple story, really. And that’s why I really enjoy it. It’s a beautifully… it’s a masterpiece. It’s a masterpiece of filmmaking in its simplicity. Its characters are lovely and tormented and flawed and beautiful and heroic. And I, again, love the themes of it."

"A testament to how sexy and personal a film about politics can be. Though the film could have been preachy or shrill, the story’s aperture stays tightly focused on the shifting feelings of its protagonists, how their understanding of the politics around them begins to change, how they feel about themselves and, in turn, how willing they are to love with abandon. And finally, it showed me how valuable a small gem of comedy is: Daniel Day-Lewis telling beautiful women to take off their clothes because he is a doctor (a lie) serves as a touchstone of rakish charm throughout the most dire moments of the movie."

"Easily, without hesitation, the most difficult, and disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. I knew after I watched it a second time (mostly to verify the feelings it instilled in me the night before when I initially watched it) that that would be the last time I ever saw it. In a culture crammed with “shocksploitation” movies that are really pornographic in their violence and depravity but empty of any symbolism or real meaning (Human Centipede anyone?), Salo is as bleak and depressing a movie for it’s “Banality of Evil” truth that permeates every moment. There’s no escape. This is the world we’ve created for ourselves."