Strong black comedy with a side of creepiness. I love the way it was shot and performed lending it a surreal quality while still being grounded and helping to balance the dark tone with light moments.

"Shot impeccably by Alberto Marrama and dipped in hushed Ennio Morricone lullabies, the film's visual intensity presents the iconography of a world in transition." - Ed Gonzalez

A bit airy, but still an interesting and all-around good film. Bellocchio could have made it slightly more realistic by studying what an epileptic episode actually looks like.

Consistently compelling.

A twisted gem laced with black humor, pathos, and horror. Castel is excellent as the deranged but also strangely sympathetic Alessandro, plus Ennio Morricone yet again delivers a fantastic score.

Bold and unique, with camerawork that perfectly captures the sense of claustrophobia. It's a very dark film with some black humor, with a tone I haven't seen much in Italian cinema. And yet, I didn't really get into it for reasons I can't explain. It just kind of flew past me.

Takes it's sweet time to get going and almost lost me along the way, but stick it out and what slowly unfurls here is a marvelously depraved and delightful little story of dealing with the hardships of family life italian-style. All those modern day fail-covered "quirky family"-flicks shoehurned under the dubious "indie"-umbrella can go eat a hardboiled fuck. This is where it's at.

When it comes to explaining "Fists in the Pocket" it is almost impossible to explain what makes the film so compelling. Is it the murderous impulses the film's main character inhabits? Or the breakdown of a family under the spell of religious control? Or the questions it arises on life and its reasons? Take your pick, but "Fists" is a stunning film that covers many grounds; some in which films had and still have not covered as successfully, even forty years after its controversial release.