Critic Reviews

• Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

  There's rarely a point when we believe in any of these characters, the bleakly romanticized setting or their increasingly ugly story.

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  Meth addicts at least can qualify for treatment; where, though, is the rehab facility for indie directors addicted to making ugly little movies about wretched little losers?

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  What we need is for the writer and director, David Pomes, to wallow less in aimless dialogue and lowlife sordidness. What we need is a point.

• Sam Adams, Time Out New York

  Pomes squeezes in a few well-observed details among the recycled white-trash clichés...

• Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

  Rather than viewing moral chaos from the eye of a storm, director David Pomes watches his movie blow off into the storm itself.

• David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

  Debuting writer-director David Pomes brings grimy authenticity and a sustained sense of dread to this bleak but well-acted drug drama.

• Mark Bell, Film Threat

  Cook County excels primarily due to the acting merits of Anson Mount. Mount portrays Bump as one of the more menacing, and yet pathetic, drug dealers ever to grace cinema.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  Strictly recommended for those dying to watch crystal meth addicts being, well, crystal meth addicts, with every attendant horror. Anyone?

• Brent Simon, Shockya.com

  A gritty, pungent drama with some nicely attuned performances; the rank aroma of frantic hopelessness can almost be smelled coming off the screen.

• Alison Willmore, AV Club

  Its almost-gleeful horrorshow quality comes with the tinge of exploitation. Misery begets more misery, but to what end?

• Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  Pomes is honest about why people do drugs. Bump does drugs because drugs feel good. They raise him up from the squalor that is his existence. Meth energizes him, makes him feel alive and powerful ...

• Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

  Cook County trades in a particular type of backwoods grime that might be dubbed "redneck junkie chic."

Read all 12 critic reviews