Escape from Tomorrow
Producers Distribution Agency (PDA) | Release Date: October 11, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireEric KohnAug 19, 2013
A labyrinthine descent into the grotesque extremes of a Disneyfied society, Escape From Tomorrow is surreal for many reasons and wholly original because of them. It's also a daring attempt to literally assail Disney World from the inside out. Read full review
90
Film.comJordan HoffmanAug 19, 2013
The Walt Disney World-set Escape From Tomorrow is both a great gimmick-dependent story and a remarkable piece of filmmaking. It is a radical, transgressive departure that exploits new technology in heretofore unseen ways. Read full review
83
The PlaylistWilliam GossAug 19, 2013
Moore’s movie may not seem to make much sense...but he does set up bits at the beginning that do come to pay off in ridiculous ways, and cinematographer Lucas Lee Graham pulls off the commendable feat of shooting the film with some margin of legitimate composition in spite of the crew’s apparent guerrilla antics. Read full review
80
The GuardianDamon WiseAug 19, 2013
The acting isn't perfect (which is perhaps understandable under the circumstances), and the film's dream states sometimes try too hard, but Escape From Tomorrow has an otherworldly atmosphere that both hooks and engages. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 11, 2013
A dark, weird, smutty, fitfully amusing comedy that ultimately wears out its welcome. As a provocation, it's aces, especially if — like the film's writer-director, Randy Moore — you hate Disney and everything it stands for. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickOct 10, 2013
Basically, the whole thing can be summed up as an epic midlife crisis. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 10, 2013
Escape from Tomorrow is more of an experimental film than a traditional narrative, but intrepid viewers — or anyone who has ever visited a Disney park — will enjoy getting lost in this dark house of happy horrors. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesInkoo KangOct 10, 2013
For the first hour, the plot is stultifyingly aimless, while the satire of Disney's oppressive optimism is as stale as any theme-park snack. But like a roller coaster, a queasily rollicking and dizzyingly loopy climax... ultimately makes the long wait worthwhile. Read full review
70
The DissolveNoel MurrayOct 9, 2013
It’s mostly a collection of surreal moments, headed nowhere in particular. But Moore milks a lot of the ironic potential out of his milieu. Read full review
70
VarietyRob NelsonAug 19, 2013
Escape From Tomorrow is a sneakily subversive exercise in low-budget surrealism and anti-corporate satire. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 9, 2013
The more outlandish the film becomes, especially in its off-the-rails second half, the less crucial its unique setting seems. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 9, 2013
As a surrealistic depiction of the mental disintegration of Jim (Abramsohn), a seemingly ordinary family guy, while visiting “the happiest place on Earth,” it’s a prank and a spit in the eye of Disney’s relentless cheerfulness. But director Randy Moore’s pièce de résistance goes far beyond flipping the bird to the mouse that roars. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 10, 2013
Escape From Tomorrow, Moore’s sometimes surreal, sometimes sophomoric, black comic phantasmagoria, makes for a bumpy theme park ride. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 8, 2013
The film is just a stunt or, more specifically, a calling card, but that might be enough for anyone who's ever wanted to kick Mickey Mouse square in his padded, pious balls. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 11, 2013
Disney World, in this incoherent but often amazing work of American psychodrama, has a lot in common with the Overlook Hotel of “The Shining,” the Venice of “Death in Venice” and the booze-soaked Cuernavaca of “Under the Volcano.” It’s a zone of existential dread, the place where masculine dreams go to die, the place where the unburied ghosts of civilization rise up like Mouse-eared, three-fingered zombies and bite us in the ass. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 19, 2013
Even as a quasi-experimental work of subjective surrealism, Escape From Tomorrow is massively erratic and isn't particularly original. But it must also be said that its take on Disney World, as well as many of its individual images, are indelible and won’t be easily forgotten. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 25, 2013
The film, shot in black-and-white at canted angles, suggests an R-rated Twilight Zone episode with a twist of Fellini-lite, in a trite film school kind of way. Mickey Mouse is unlikely to be shaking in his big yellow shoes. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 24, 2013
Once you get past the amazement this thing was made at all, the movie itself is an intermittently clever but mostly tedious, convoluted David Lynch knockoff that wanders all over the place. Read full review
50
NPRElla TaylorOct 11, 2013
True, Escape From Tomorrow, a handsomely mounted gallery of Mouse House cuteness inverted into grotesquerie, looks a sight more artful than do most home movies. But as an expose of Disney's manufactured happiness, and by extension the sins of corporate capitalism, it's pretty stale news. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 10, 2013
As a movie, Escape From Tomorrow is at best pretty good, but the way it was made makes it something unique, possibly memorable. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 10, 2013
The story of how Moore made the movie is ultimately more interesting than the film he’s put together. It’s not for lack of trying. It’s more a lack of a cogent story. Read full review
50
Village VoiceErnest HardyOct 8, 2013
While Escape is filled with inspired touches... Moore lacks the off-kilter psychological nuances of Lynch, as well as the go-for-broke storytelling skills and visual élan. It doesn't help that the cast is largely competent at best. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 8, 2013
In a word: Bibbidi-bobbidi-blah. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 11, 2013
Moore shows promising ingenuity in shooting parts of the movie covertly, within the notoriously restrictive Disney World resort. But his script never takes the same sort of risk. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 10, 2013
None of it is as scary or as funny as it should be, and what starts out as a sly thumb in the eye of corporate power ends up as a muddled and amateurish homage to David Lynch. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 8, 2013
What we’re left with are a bunch of unseasoned performers and a first-time filmmaker clearly out of his depth (good lord, those green-screen shots!) hocking loogies at Mickey and friends with hit-and-mostly-miss fervidness. Read full review
25
Washington PostOct 10, 2013
Juvenile, disjointed and pointlessly revolting at times, although there are a few moments of disturbingly stark visual beauty. Read full review
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