Pacifiction
Grasshopper Film | Release Date: February 17, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
IndieWireChristian BlauveltOct 13, 2022
Pacifiction is not a vicarious experience of luxury; it is an experience of life. Set to its own tidal rhythm, it is one of the most beautiful and rigorously introspective movies of this or any year, a film that makes you deeply ponder the fate of humanity itself. Read full review
100
The PlaylistMark AschOct 2, 2022
A gorgeous and grave anti-epic, Pacifiction proceeds in scenes that serve as pristine containers for Serra’s idiosyncratic style, slow and digressive, full of flabby jokes and windy talk. It’s like watching a tropical aquarium slowly fill with algae. Read full review
100
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 28, 2022
Pacifiction draws you in with its sense of mystery and surrealism and leaves you ultimately agog. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 2, 2023
In scene after scene, Serra holds beauty and menace in a kind of uneasy equilibrium. He’s made a trouble-in-paradise movie where the trouble doesn’t overwhelm the paradise so much as poison it, at an almost imperceptible slow drip, from the inside. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineCarson LundJul 8, 2022
Pacifiction uses its thin narrative elements as a pretense to explore the texture of uncertainty, suspicion, and inaction. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellApr 18, 2023
Albert Serra’s latest is a hazy fever dream of post colonialist politics and ambition that in its final minutes lurches into apocalyptic mania. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsApr 12, 2023
Pacifiction is by far Serra’s most serious and sombre film to date, an epic of neutered power and human expendability – a death-knell for humanity rendered as a tropical daydream. Read full review
80
Time OutSophie Monks KaufmanFeb 17, 2023
Two-and-a-half hours long, Pacifiction is a film of extremely long and naturalistic takes in which tiny details become hypnotic – whether it’s the refreshing drinks served at a meeting or the way a woman dances. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottFeb 16, 2023
It suggests John le Carré by way of David Lynch — a feverish and haunting but also wry and meditative rumination on power, secrecy and the color of clouds over water at sunset. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 28, 2022
Albert Serra’s bizarre epic is a cheese-dream of French imperial tristesse, political paranoia and an apocalyptic despair. It is a nightmare that moves as slowly and confidently as a somnambulist, and its pace, length, and Serra’s beautiful widescreen panoramic framings – in which conventional drama is almost camouflaged or lost – may divide opinion. I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil. Read full review
70
The Irish TimesTara BradyApr 21, 2023
This meandering, mysterious 164-minute meditation on French imperialism is not for everyone. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLee MarshallMay 28, 2022
For resilient audiences, it provides a truly original cinematic experience. ‘Cinematic’ is a key word: the film was lavishly shot using three 4K Canon Black Magic Pocket cameras and comes with a rich soundscape that pushes the oneiric envelope and takes certain scenes into paranoid-thriller genre territory. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 28, 2022
Pacifiction is a film in many ways about floating, through life and water and power, inviting the viewer to idly drift right along with it. Read full review
67
Original-CinThom ErnstFeb 23, 2023
Pacifiction is a movie to experience. In the end, it’s all an analogy between politics and nightclubs and the assumption (fiction?) of power and persuasion. But that’s my guess. Your guess is as good as mine. And to that effect, ours is as good a guess as even Serra is willing to offer. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 28, 2022
Quite watchable, even sort of plot-driven — for a Serra film. Read full review
50
UproxxVince ManciniMar 10, 2023
There’s a gulf between Pacifiction‘s promise and the crushing burden it is to actually sit through — which is numbing and banal in a way that doesn’t inspire flowery prose. It mostly inspires curmudgeonly grumbling (foreshadowing…). Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 22, 2023
It’s not all that coherent either, a filmic piece of flotsam that one and all drift along with, touching on themes but never wrestling with them, glimpsing the sights but never really showing them to us. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsFeb 17, 2023
This isn’t a story, but an evocative collection of asked-and-answered prompts. You buy a ticket to Pacifiction and then you react, until the nudging stops. Read full review
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