Family Romance, LLC
MUBI | Release Date (Streaming): July 3, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Original-CinLiam LaceyJul 8, 2020
In the current moment, with our wary physical distancing and awkward artificial socializing, Family Romance LLC’s gaze into the uncanny valley absolutely chimes with the times. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 23, 2019
It’s as if Herzog has made a narrative film based off a documentary film that doesn’t exist, which is obviously an entirely Herzogian thing to do. Read full review
80
Time OutEurico de BarrosAug 24, 2020
Is Family Romance, LLC a docudrama? A meta-doc? Staged reality? However you define it, it’s enthralling, unsettling and typically Herzogian. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJul 13, 2020
It might be staged, but it has a scrappy, fly-on-the-wall feel. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 2, 2020
In many of Herzog’s nonfiction films, the director himself is a defining presence. One understands why he wanted to stay behind the camera and off the soundtrack here. This wrinkle in modern social life is best taken in without the mitigation of overt distancing. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 3, 2020
Fans of Herzog — and that really should be all of you — should seek it out. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneJun 30, 2020
We are never quite sure of the extent to which situations and dialogues have been scripted and, as such, it’s as though Herzog were more witness than author, more passerby than gawker, simply registering Japan being Japan. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustJul 2, 2020
In the final act, the film embraces some of those larger points, and Herzog ends with a striking final image leaving us to contemplate the transactional nature and true cost of all human relationships. Read full review
70
TheWrapSteve PondMay 22, 2019
A curious little meditation on the extent to which humans will go to make connections, and on the commodification of everything up to and including love, it is a fascinating film that will never be confused with one of Herzog’s major works. But it nonetheless has moments of subtle and quintessentially Herzogian rhapsody. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 20, 2019
This is minor Herzog, to be sure, but alternately amusing and disarming nonetheless. It also makes an implicit request: Analyst, analyze yourself. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 22, 2019
While the movie’s rough production values and meandering plot never quite gel, Family Romance, LLC is a fascinating convergence of filmmaker and subject, providing the rare opportunity for Herzog to bury his observations in the material at hand. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinJul 2, 2020
A compelling curio from Werner Herzog, who investigates a strange real-life phenomenon through a fictional lens. It's worth watching, especially if you enjoy Herzog's lateral take on life, but it's hard not to wish he'd just made it as a straight documentary. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellJul 1, 2020
Herzog doesn’t quite hit the mark here: Family Romance’s denouement is certainly moving but its depiction of Ishii’s emotional conflict is undercooked and perhaps even a little trite. Nevertheless, on a formal level, it’s a fascinating study of the artifice of the genre, a deconstruction of the comforting contract between artist and viewer that guides us towards a particular kind of emotional or intellectual engagement. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 20, 2019
The “LLC” in the film’s title is a clue that the movie wasn’t conceived purely in a spirit of empathy, although Herzog’s humor is good-natured enough. If anything, Family Romance is just the latest iteration of a uniquely human desire to replicate the relationships we can’t control in our lives. Read full review
60
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 20, 2019
The abiding impression is of an intermittently fascinating film that is a minor work in the ever burgeoning Herzog canon. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 20, 2019
A strange, faintly frustrating but diverting film. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 2, 2020
Conversely, a more straightforward documentary might address the bigger questions Herzog barely grazes in fictionalization. Family Romance, LLC straddles the line between the two tacts and finds no ecstatic truth there. Read full review
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