User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 15
  2. Negative: 4 out of 15

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  1. BrianH.
    Mar 30, 2006
    just a big show, really. people seem to think its all meaningful, but it just seems superficial and boring to me, like a slowed down music video.
  2. Dan
    Apr 5, 2006
    I find images from this film haunting me. If you let yourself just experience it and not focus so much on what it is about, you will find yourself transported.
  3. LarissaM.
    Mar 30, 2006
    This was the most pretentious movie I have ever seen.
  4. KendraL.
    Jun 5, 2006
    I'm tempted to say that people who enjoy this would enjoy anything Bjork or Barney did, like throw up on stage. The images are striking, and the costuming is oddly intreguing, but I think the whole thing would have been better captured from a series of successful stills, rather than two hours of pointlessness.
  5. PeterG.
    Jul 20, 2006
    Substantial organic talent is employed to produce this tedious and narcissistic film. I like obtuse art that is intelligently presented. This movies seems like giant egos (whale sized in fact) run amuck. I wish that some of the talented struggling artists out there had access to 1/100th the money and attention lavished on Barney. That's life on the post modern frontier.
  6. Deniz12s
    Jul 21, 2006
    I have seen the exhibit accompanying this film, and overall I think it's a big joke about the art world and American culture. Matthew Barney is just pushing limits to see how far he can go and still be called an "Artist" while creating very little that can actually be called art, or even that he made himself. Little Bjork is into the crazy imagery, and a lot of this film was probably for the purpose of impressing her. There is some interesting commentary on the role of whale slaughter and worship of the sea in Japanese culture, but it is so lost beneath the ridiculousness of the rest of the project, that it's almost beside the point. Expand

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 20
  2. Negative: 2 out of 20
  1. Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    A tapestry of sensuous, striking and sometimes disturbing imagery, Drawing Restraint 9 marks the latest cinematic visit to the wacky world of experimental artist Matthew Barney.
  2. Reviewed by: Ed Halter
    Those who fear that the mainstream of contemporary art has become little more than an extension of fashion will find no comfort in Drawing Restraint 9, Matthew Barney's latest big-budget ejaculation of ritual self-involvement and superficial foofery.
  3. The uninitiated viewer can admire it simply for the majesty of its visual poetry.