Hard to Be a God
Kino Lorber | Release Date: January 30, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
93
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 13, 2015
Hard to Be a God creates its own uncanny world: it is beautiful, brilliant and bizarre. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 13, 2015
Though it delves into the worst extremes of human ugliness, German’s film is exhilarating, moving, funny, beautiful and unshakeable – a danse macabre that whirls you round and round until the bitter end. Read full review
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 3, 2015
The late director Aleksei Guerman’s last film is a grandly arbitrary carnival of neo-medieval depravity. It’s also a mudpunk allegory of Russian barbarism and backwardness. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJan 30, 2015
A fantastical examination of man’s inhumanity to man, and as replete as it is with persistent visceral disgust, it also pulses with intelligence, a mordant compassion, and yes, incredible wit. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungJan 29, 2015
While there are implicit references to the horrors of the Soviet and post-Soviet state and to the 20th century in general, this monstrously overflowing film seems to aim even higher. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJan 25, 2015
Aleksei German's final film is choreographed with a Felliniesque social grandeur, but tethered to a neorealist's eye for detail and quotidian matters of social justice. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 28, 2015
It is grotesque and deranged and Hieronymus Bosch-like, and damn if it isn’t a bona fide vision — but of what, exactly? Read full review
90
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldJan 29, 2015
Mr. German was just as stubborn in sticking to his personal vision (and revisions) as he was innovative in his storytelling, and he’s left behind a final opus that is hard to shake. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonJan 27, 2015
Textually, the setting's brutalist conflation between the far future and the distant past makes the film timeless, an elusive fable told with the viscous immediacy of a life on the diseased edge of civilization. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMar 12, 2015
The vividly realized squalor, cruelty, and ugliness engulf everything, including the narrative. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleDec 13, 2015
Hard to Be a God is a cinematic behemoth, an unshakable monochrome nightmare of squelching bodily discharges that inhabits a world so noxious you can almost smell the pungent deterioration of humanity as it spews forth from the screen. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonAug 3, 2015
Hard to Be a God is an endurance test for its protagonist and audience, yet the reward is an unforgettable cinematic experience and a timely insight into the need to remain human in a world of carnage. Read full review
70
VarietyJay WeissbergJan 29, 2015
In essence it’s an historical artifact created in a time capsule: impressive in its way, yet its retardataire mannerisms require more distance before judgment can be passed on whether it’s a major work engaged in earlier forms, or an intriguing footnote trapped in a spent modality. Read full review
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