La Moustache
Cinema Guild | Release Date: May 24, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Emmanuel Carrère's witty, elegant La Moustache is a deliciously unsettling, beautifully sustained enigma, a film of much beauty and flawless performances, especially from Vincent Lindon in one of his most demanding roles. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Comes on as both a rebuke to male vanity and a chic metaphor for midlife panic. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
An intriguing study of identity, marriage and, perhaps, madness. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Elegant and enjoyably disorienting. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
A successful novelist and restrained actor's director, Carrére makes the transformation of a silly marital argument into a cosmic upheaval look easy, and profound as well. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
No matter how serious it becomes, however, La Moustache never forsakes an underlying attitude of high-style playfulness that recalls Hitchcock's cat-and-mouse romantic thrillers. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Unlike, say, David Cronenberg, who manages to establish a crucial, critical distance between his audience and his schizophrenic protagonist in his adaptation of Patrick McGrath's similarly themed "Spider," Carrere re-creates the insane mind through his camera, and diffuses his point about subjective experience by inadvertently raising questions about truth and the movies. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Vincent Lindon, one of France's leading actors, is super as Marc, a man on a downward spiral into insanity. And Emmanuelle Devos is comforting as Marc's loving wife. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
La Moustache recalls the "everyday suspense" films of Roman Polanski and the existential woe of Michelangelo Antonioni, but it isn't as strange or penetrating as the former, or as artfully shot as the latter. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
It's a broad generality to say that French filmmakers have a particularly perverse sensibility, but it can be backed up by one import after another. The latest, La Moustache, is wonderfully odd in a minimalist kind of way. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
With his thin-lipped grimace and big, soulful eyes, Lindon's an ideal actor for this sort of puzzle. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
This narrative feature debut by Emmanuel Carrere, based on his own novel, is deliberately open-ended, but however one interprets the outcome, the film reminds us how fragile intimacy is. Read full review
70
VarietyLisa Nesselson
Viewers who like their conclusions tidy may rebel, but those who relish outstanding performances in the service of an intriguing idea will be entertained. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The pleasure of La Moustache is that it doesn't feel the need to explain itself at every turn. Part absurdist comedy about the institution of marriage, part paranoid Kafkaesque fantasy, it's a minor-key reverie on the way our own lives can sometimes feel alien to us. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
The big shave is the starting point for a clever, if somewhat too clever, film from French critic, novelist and documentarian Emmanuel Carrere. La Moustache could be clipped down to Franz Kafka-meets-Jerry Seinfeld, where a whole slew of absurd petite calamities befall our everyday hero, triggered by his trim. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
An enigma inside a conundrum inside an escargot shell, the French puzzler La Moustache will delight some people even as it annoys others. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Have Marc's friends tricked him with a conspiracy of silence, or was that mustache a growth only in his mind? The filmmaker has said there is no intended meaning to any of this, so search for it for your own amusement. Read full review
More From This Movie

71 Critic Reviews

6.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL