La Cage aux Folles
United Artists | Release Date: May 13, 1979 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is basically the first sitcom in drag, and the comic turns in the plot are achieved with such clockwork timing that sometimes we're laughing at what's funny and sometimes we're just laughing at the movie's sheer comic invention. This is a great time at the movies. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
The fabulous 1970s fashions don’t hold up too well, but what still resonates is the movie’s empathetic attention to what it’s like if your sexual identity doesn’t neatly fit into traditional norms. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyKeith Staskiewicz
Like many of the best farces, from The Importance of Being Earnest to Cactus Flower, it draws its humor from characters pretending to be something they’re not. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher Machell
Later remade as The Bird Cage, this first adaptation of Jean Poiret’s play is as moving as it is hilarious in its depiction of moral hypocrisy and familial love. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris Cabin
Though its politics are still quite progressive, La Cage aux Folles is ultimately a work of classicism, crafted with precision and efficiently paced. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
In less assured hands, this could have wound up as a disaster, but director Edouard Molinaro was skillfully able to film the long-running play and wring every drop of humor from it. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith Phipps
Without challenging viewers’ notions of how gay men behave, the film shamed its homophobic characters while showing a loving family headed by longtime same-sex partners who are embraced by their community—boas, makeup, and all. Albin and Renato were onto something. It was the rest of the world’s job to catch up. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Though predictable, the film has one solid trump in Michel Serrault who makes the more feminine member of the happy couple a very shrewd limning of outsize campy gay attributes that avoid tastelessness. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
It’s funny in a coarse, obvious way, and it probably would have been a laugh riot had director Edouard Molinaro possessed even an elementary sense of timing. Still, it’s not very honorable: this is one of those sitcoms, like The Jeffersons, that “explain” a minority to middle-class audiences by making their members cute, cuddly, and harmlessly eccentric. Read full review
40
The New York TimesVincent Canby
La Cage aux Folles is naughty in the way of comedies that pretend to be sophisticated but actually serve to reinforce the most popular conventions and most witless stereotypes. Read full review
40
EmpireKim Newman
Despite delicate performances, the lead characters never escape stereotype, and the relationship between them, which should be the emotional heart of the movie, never becomes remotely convincing even on an I Love Lucy level. Read full review
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