Have a Nice Day
Strand Releasing | Release Date: January 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJan 26, 2018
Writer/director Liu Jian has taken familiar stylistic elements, and made them feel fresh, and exciting. Have a Nice Day may be Jian's second feature after "Piercing I," but it feels like a major breakthrough. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJan 25, 2018
Leisurely and deliberate, intelligent and casually cruel, Have a Nice Day is a stone-cold gangster thriller whose violence unfolds in passionless bursts. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyFeb 21, 2017
Liu Jian’s animation Have a Nice Day is at once a bloodthirsty genre thriller; a political statement about China, globalization and capitalism; and a vibrantly witty piece of postmodern pop art. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 21, 2017
It might not quite end on a satisfying note, but Have a Nice Day remains an urgent, thoroughly entertaining, and inventive piece of filmmaking. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 21, 2017
The vivid palette of Liu’s animation conveys a comic book-like exuberance to the proceedings, but the underlying socioeconomic frustration is very real. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 1, 2018
Liu gives you plenty to listen to, but don't forget to look: Beyond the formulaic thriller plotting and the showy verbiage, it's the movie's richly textured vision of urban decay that stays with you. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJan 25, 2018
It’s a story that doesn’t quite follow the money. The money is a maguffin, as per Hitchcock. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijFeb 21, 2017
Like in any good genre yarn, there are a lot of unexpected twists and turns as characters run into each other — often quite literally and sometimes even with their vehicles — in the desperate hope of getting their hands on the money. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangFeb 21, 2017
Liu’s storyline may be a slight and generic madcap gangster/hitman/thief movie, but the details of aesthetic design and character interaction flesh it out into something a little more wittily resonant, if not exactly deep. The pointed inventiveness of the carefully premeditated form doesn’t just compensate for the banality of the content, it becomes the content. Read full review
75
Washington PostChristopher KompanekFeb 27, 2018
Its juiciest bits, which include Uncle Liu musing on meat buns as a childhood friend of his is beaten to a pulp for sleeping with the mobster’s wife, are reminiscent of early Quentin Tarantino. But here, scenes unspool at a far more meditative clip. Read full review
75
TheWrapRobert AbeleJan 26, 2018
A deadpan crime story with eccentric and fantastical touches, and a healthy sense of the absurd, “Have a Nice Day” makes a bold argument for Chinese animation as a fertile outlet for exploring the country’s more desperate, constricted lives, and the choices these people make. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 24, 2018
Liu is clearly inspired by live-action filmmakers (the Coen brothers and the Japanese actor-director Takeshi Kitano are acknowledged influences), but his casual side trips into the fantastic—say, an extended daydream sequence that’s part parody of Cultural Revolution propaganda, part karaoke video—can only work in drawing. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineWes GreeneJan 22, 2018
The film's pale-hued, Flash-like animation is abundant in detailed backgrounds that make the characters stand out like placards, allowing for Jian's critique of modern China to land with maximum force. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriJan 26, 2018
The surprisingly vibrant, hand-drawn images of Have a Nice Day revitalize the story’s more tired elements. It may not give us anything new, but Jian Liu’s film looks lovely and, at 77 minutes, doesn’t overstay its welcome. And sometimes that’s enough. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 22, 2018
A bleak, at times fascinating but strangely inert Chinese animated film. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerFeb 21, 2018
It wants so hard to be "Pulp Fiction," but it ends up "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag." Read full review
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