Mafioso [re-release]
Zenith International Films | Release Date: January 19, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A small comic masterpiece that dares to deal with that of which many Sicilians dare not speak: the Mafia. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A magnificent film almost no one knows about, this hidden classic offers a wider variety of pleasures than most contemporary works can even aspire to. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
Lattuada has adapted a gritty neorealist style to suit his dark comedy and is in full command in the final half hour, when he ups the ante in surprising ways. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Mafioso does more than cast its fascinating shadow over "The Godfather." It captures, in a stark yet haunting way, the indelible fact that no man is born a mobster. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's a marvelous performance in a marvelous movie, one that sneaks up on you while you're watching it. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The film combines farcical and sinister tones, as well as textures of high polish and captured-in-the-raw neorealism, and it simply brims with energy and surprises. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Filmed in a hot and bleached black-and-white, it manages to swerve from culture-clashing farce to alarming suspense without losing control. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The movie is at once a giddy mixture of farce, satire and opera buffa and a closely observed drama of social dislocation and cultural confusion. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Sordi is an elegant comic actor in the vein of America's William Powell; the world may confound him, but it can never rumple him. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Mafioso may have been made in another era, but it stands as a classy, even radical rebuke to the film school posers who keep recycling the same tired gangster tropes. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
This is the sort of masterpiece that will obliterate memories of lesser, later efforts in the "meeting the parents" comedy lineage. Brilliant. Read full review
88
PremiereAaron Hillis
Mafioso isn't a straight black satire of Sicilian culture so much as a suspenseful near-tragedy leavened by the zesty, irreverent wit that helped define the golden age of Italian comedies. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Mafioso is shaped like a comedy, and it is one, but its intentionally jarring clashes of tone and rhythm are truly out there. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Mafioso is the missing link in the mob movie arc. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
That's the beauty of Mafioso: that what begins as a comedy of disconnection becomes a tragicomedy of connection -- of roots that go deep and branches that span continents. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Alberto Lattuada's tricky-to-parse Mafioso dates from 1962 but, with its abrupt tonal shifts and disturbing existential premise, this nearly forgotten dark comedy could be the most modern (or at least modernist) movie in town. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
[Sordi] lifts buffoonery to the level of high art.
80
Chicago ReaderPat Graham
A more visually conscious stylist than most Italian commercial directors of the period, Lattuada remains largely unknown in the U.S., though in Europe he's been touted as the great eclectic talent of the postwar Italian cinema. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Mafioso starts out as a comedy of manners before turning into a mob thriller that brings Nino to Bergen County, N.J. When he gets there, look for a man reading The Post on a street corner. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The matchless Alberto Sordi - a contemporary of Peters Sellers and a progenitor of Steve Martin - stars as the buffoon Everyman, Antonio Badalamenti, a perfectly poised figure destined for the pratfall. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Satire is at the core of Mafioso, whether in establishing the by-now-stereotypical images of Sicilian peasants or the gripping arms of the Mafia. Read full review
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