Seeking to achieve their dreams, this movie follows the efforts of gonzo filmmakers that do their best to save the career of a well known actress. They end up working on making a perfect movie and end the Yakuza war.
Delivers adrenaline, chutzpah, and fake blood by the bucket-load, continually confounding audience expectations while offering up a twisted valentine to moviemaking in general and the disappearing medium of 35mm film in particular.
"Why Don't You Play in Hell" is violent and irreverent, packed full with crazy ideas, and about as much bloody fun as you can have in a theater right now.
Sono is so pure of heart, so full of enthusiasm and insane imagination and unwavering loyalty to the movie gods, long after the rest of us have stopped believing, that I forgive him everything.
If you can make it till the end, there's one helluva payoff.
AV Club
November 06, 2014
From sudden zooms and abrupt freeze frames to lengthy tracking shots, slow-motion, and CG-enhanced fantasy interludes, Why Don't You Play In Hell? boasts an aesthetic insanity to match its uninhibited narrative.
Defined by a sanguineous sense of humor and unpretentious spirit, [it] makes for a stylish, self-aware, if somewhat lagging romp about film culture and creative ambitions.
Sono achieves a level of insanity that most filmmakers wouldn't even dare to challenge, turning Why Don't You Play In Hell? into a uniquely decadent cinematic treat that delivers exactly as advertised.
