Naqoyqatsi
Miramax Films | Release Date: October 18, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Its best moments offer a sense of motion-picture poetry that will lift receptive viewers out of their seats. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Filmmaking at its purest and most visceral – a tale full of sound and visual fury, signifying, if not exactly nothing, then something not so readily articulated in words. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There are extraordinary collisions of image and music here that make for some breathtaking sequences, but when that portentous, Gregorian-chanting chorus kicks in with its repetitive mantra of the film's title, it sure sounds a whole lot like they're saying "narcolepsy," not "naqoyqatsi." Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Images wash over you like wind-blown rain, fierce and beautiful at the same time, largely shaped into themes by the haunting music of Philip Glass, who is here joined by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Who needs mind-bending drugs when they can see this. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I have problems with Naqoyqatsi as a film, but as a music video it's rather remarkable. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Reggio, who is sufficiently eager for a large audience that he has allowed his film to be distributed by Miramax, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co., surely one of the villains in his piece, is neither so honest nor so bold (as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine"). Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleOctavio Roca
Passionate visual indictment of the perilous state of our high-tech world. Read full review
75
Chicago TribunePatrick Z. McGavin
The film is a disturbing and frighteningly evocative assembly of imagery and hypnotic music. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJon Burlingame
Much of this is involving, although the pace is so relentless that it leaves little time to breathe or grasp precisely what Reggio is attempting to say. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
If Microsoft and Nike ever merged into one corporate megalith (MicroNike?) and commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to direct its visionary new Super Bowl commercial, the result might look something like Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A movie that seems to have been made mostly on the hard drive of a Power Mac G4. But whatever, we get it: Technology destroys everything. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Feels like a bloated mass of data without much coherence. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
By far the grimmest of these nonnarrative, nonverbal cinematic tone poems with epic ambitions. Although none of the three could be described as cheery, Naqoyqatsi, whose title is the Hopi Indian term for war as a way of life, reeks of doomsday. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Dense collage of digitally altered images often looks shockingly like some super-hip media agency's show reel. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
This is more like "The Sixth Sense" writ large: we are all dead but don't know it. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It would be very possible for a reasonably intelligent person to sit through its tidal wave of imagery and not get this vision at all. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Sadly, Naqoyqatsi quickly degenerates into a monotonous skein of banal images which strangely reinforces the message that we're living in a damn dull society. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Part of what made "Koyaanisqatsi" such a revelation was its purely cinematic dependence on unconstructed imagery. Here, he adds a parade of religious, corporate, and political icons, and what's already preachy turns heavy-handed. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Possessed of another outstanding wall-to-wall score by Philip Glass but rather fuzzy in its message, entry differs from its predecessors in that roughly 80% of its images are derived from existing sources and have been "tortured and recontextualized" to unusual and sometimes extreme effect. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyDavid Chute
Incoherence reigns. Read full review
30
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Despite some rocking bombast by Philip Glass and reliably wicked cello saws from Yo-Yo Ma, the whole thing plays like a tired Tyco ad. Read full review
20
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Pretentious, ponderous and redundant -- You may not need linear narrative to create a great movie, but you do need some original ideas. Read full review
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