Prick Up Your Ears
The film is based on a book by theater critic John Lahr. It goes inside the extraordinary life of a talented playwright Joe Orton who is murdered by his girlfriend at the height of reputation.
21 April 1926, 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, England, UK
12 October 1936, Kiren, Argyllshire, Scotland, UK
1 March 1948, Wales, UK
1955, Hull, East Yorkshire, England, UK
25 September 1958, London, England, UK
30 January 1937, Greenwich, London, England, UK
August 20, 2012
A brilliant and painfully raw portrait of a troubled, a tragic relationship.
November 16, 2009
Molina stares down all clichés, veering away from effeminate tones when they would be most convenient and avoids trapping Ken into a brooding madman.
May 20, 2003
The film covers the main events of the Orton life in a manner that is nothing less than distracted. One has little understanding of the fatal intensity - and need - that kept Orton and Halliwell together.
April 06, 2007
A decent snapshot of pre-Beatle Britain, this is much more a fact-based gay melodrama than a trenchant portrait of Joe Orton's life, loves and art.
January 01, 2000
The filmmakers have shown great intellectual taste. But it's not the kind of taste that's illuminating.
June 24, 2006
Oldman is brilliant; Molina's Halliwell less subtle; and the film's dissection of cottaging quaintly amusing.
January 01, 2000
The great performances in the movie are, of course, at its center. Gary Oldman plays Orton and Alfred Molina plays Halliwell, and these are two of the best performances of the year.
January 01, 2000
Like "Casablanca," "Diva," "Clockwork Orange" and countless other quality-cult films, "Prick Up Your Ears" has an indefinable idiosyncrasy that makes you want to come back for more.
August 20, 2012
Oldman, fresh from his triumph as Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, is the key and holds it all together.
April 03, 2007
It is repetitive at times, occasionally lagging, but the performances by Oldman and especially Molina simply demand your attention.
March 26, 2009
Gary Oldman is excellent as Orton, right down to remarkable resemblance, while Alfred Molina creates both an amusing and tormented Halliwell. Vanessa Redgrave takes top honors, though, as a compassionate and benign agent.
April 07, 2007
Stands up extraordinarily well: mostly because of two outstanding central performances, Gary Oldman as the talented, blase Orton, and Alfred Molina as his thwarted, Hancock-esque murderer Kenneth Halliwell.
