Reality
Oscilloscope Pictures | Release Date: March 15, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 28, 2013
The movie’s a funny, dark, increasingly razor-sharp inquiry into the metaphysics of modern fame — how the dream of “being seen” and thus validated on some primal level can completely unhinge the average schmo. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 10, 2013
The reality-show aesthetic pervades the movie as well. Garrone's roaming camera style draws you into each moment with extreme close-ups and long takes that wander through each scene and get lost in it. Luciano's plight is crushing because Garrone renders it with such detail. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 21, 2013
Garrone achieves something uniquely colorful, disturbing and trenchant about self-perception in an increasingly fishbowl-like society. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 14, 2013
Reality is a story about one man’s desire to make it big on the small screen, and something of a familiar exploration of the blurring between reality and its simulations. More elliptically and more interestingly, it is also a look at an Italy engrossed with rituals and spectacle, in watching and being watched. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonMar 12, 2013
Garrone's film grows in your head afterward, making royal hash out of a cultural paradigm we'll be loath to remember years from now—if, by then, everything hasn't become "reality." Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsApr 25, 2013
The first-rate Italian comedy Reality — which fakes Pope Benedict appearing in St. Peter’s Square — likens consecration to elevating an “everyman” to pop celebrity. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 22, 2013
Coming on the heels of the Taviani brothers’ quasi-documentary “Caesar Must Die,” about the staging of “Julius Caesar” in a maximum-security lockup, Reality gives credence to the notion that Italian prisons are hotbeds of acting talent. Read full review
83
Film.comEric D. SniderMar 18, 2013
With a jaunty musical score by Alexandre Desplat and a pleasant visual style aided by Marco Onorato’s colorful cinematography, Garrone delivers a story that’s part fairy tale, part religious allegory and part scathing indictment. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMar 13, 2013
His outrageous, self-destructive journey lands him in a place just as ironic as Rupert Pupkin’s in "The King Of Comedy," but it’s haunting and mysterious, too, reflecting the dream that consumes his life. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 18, 2013
While Reality is a mixed bag of satire, allegory and melodrama, it’s a rich mixture that an American remake would likely never pull off. This is a movie that will reward multiple viewings, from a filmmaker of tremendous technical ability, humor and heart. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonMar 15, 2013
The film belongs to Arena, outstanding as a man growing ever more delusional in his quest to acquire celebrity status. Read full review
75
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMar 14, 2013
The bright palette of Reality is an obvious way to underline the hero’s unraveling, but it looks good, and it works. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMar 8, 2013
Spoofing the pernicious effects of television, especially the so-called reality genre, doesn't require pinpoint aim, and at times Luciano seems as much a target of ridicule as the superficial, oversexed entertainment served up on the tube. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoMar 11, 2013
Matteo Garrone has a sure eye for outlandish set pieces that exhibit the expansive outlines of his ideas, but these spectacles are sporadic, and the spaces between them tend to lag. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 20, 2013
In short, there are moments, in this very uneven film with its lamination of the ancient and the monstrously new, when the spirit of Fellini hovers overhead like a naughty angel. [25 March 2013, p.109]
60
EmpireSimon CrookMar 18, 2013
As a satire on the seduction by media and our infatuation with celebrity, it's hardly "The Truman Show," but Garrone’s Gomorrah follow-up is wry and witty. Plenty of fun. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 14, 2013
There is enough here — including the gifted Arena’s barely believable backstory — to keep your head spinning. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 8, 2013
It's a likable film played with gusto and heart — though fundamentally a little sentimental and predictable. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMar 8, 2013
Half comedy and half drama, the film struggles to find its tone amid stock characters and leisurely plotting, with nods to Fellini and Italian neorealism that leave the taste of a big, reheated pizza. It all should be funnier; still the atmospheric local kitsch wins some smiles. Read full review
42
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMar 15, 2013
While it's great to look at, Reality is an empty shell. A feature length examination on the artifice of reality programming, Garrone's film itself is superficial and lacking the same depth of artistry and ideas he finds absent on TV. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesMar 12, 2013
This vision of contemporary Italy as a warped fairyland filled with corpulent slobs and seedy C-grade celebrities recalls the tough-love spectacle of Fellini’s "La Dolce Vita," but Reality frustratingly devolves into a far more tedious mass-media morality tale. Read full review
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