Brazil
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 18, 1985 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Brazil may not be the best film of the year, but it's a remarkable accomplishment for Mr. Gilliam, whose satirical and cautionary impulses work beautifully together. His film's ambitious visual style bears this out, combining grim, overpowering architecture with clever throwaway touches. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
This modern cult classic is a triumphantly dark comedy directed by one of the film world's truly original visionaries, Terry Gilliam. "Imagination" is this futuristic film’s middle name. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
A ferociously creative 1985 black comedy filled with wild tonal contrasts, swarming details, and unfettered visual invention--every shot carries a charge of surprise and delight. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyStaff (Not Credited)
One of those rare gems that prove equally stunning on both aesthetic and cerebral levels.
100
Film.comJohn Hartl
For all its occasional long-windedness and visual dazzle, Brazil may be the "Strangelove" of the 1980s.
100
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
It's a glimmering hunk of fractured brilliance riddled with Orwellian paranoia encased in a production design seemingly pieced together from the shared dreams of Franz Kakfa and Salvador Dali, and shot from cruelly low angles. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Corliss
There is not a more daft, more original or haunting vision to be seen on American movie screens this year... A terrific movie has escaped the asylum without a lobotomy. The good guys, the few directors itching to make films away from the assembly line, won one for a change. [30 Dec 1985, p.84]
100
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
It remains a stunning achievement, if nearly as exhausting and frustrating as the Tex Avery bureaucracy it roasts, but Gilliam's stylistic dysfunctionalities, art-directed out of junkyards, are what still percolate in the forebrain. Read full review
100
EmpireAdam Smith
Gilliam's dystopian epic remains among his best, blending his trademark visual inventiveness with a vicious brand of social satire. Unique and essential. Read full review
90
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Chillingly hilarious. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Terry Gilliam's darkly funny and truly visionary retro-futurist fantasy is a mess dramatically, and its turbulent history echoes the battles fought by Orson Welles against studio executives bent on recutting or scuttling his films. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Brazil can be enjoyed without knowledge of the behind-the-scenes circumstances but the rich irony of the parallels between Gilliam and his fictional creation, Sam Lowry, add a layer of appreciation to the project that it otherwise lacks. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Blindingly obtuse, excessively morose, the film is nevertheless dazzling in its inventive and massive sets and spectacular in its techniques...A powerful work that is both bleakly funny and breathtakingly assured. Read full review
70
The New YorkerPauline Kael
Visually, it’s an original, bravura piece of moviemaking, with a weirdly ingenious vertical quality: the camera always seems to be moving up and down, rarely across. Read full review
70
IGNR.L. Shaffer
It's a strange, hypnotic, completely fresh vision, not of the future per se, but into Terry Gilliam's own mind. Read full review
More From This Movie

84 Critic Reviews

8.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 71 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL