Rifkin's Festival
MPI Media Group | Release Date: January 28, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
11
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Original-CinKaren GordonFeb 7, 2022
Rifkin’s Festival is a romantic farce, with ideas that long-time fans will recognize from a range of other Allen films, but with one difference. The movie ends on a surprisingly sweet note. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJan 28, 2022
Allen’s direction, with Vittorio Storaro lensing, is typically fluid. If you’re at all inclined to view this movie, you’ll find it’s very easy to take in. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJan 25, 2022
An airy, lazy, though rather likable overseas rom-com served with a dose of melancholia and several large portions of cinematic nostalgia. Read full review
60
The GuardianJonathan RomneySep 23, 2020
By Allen’s lamentable recent standards, this fitfully entertaining film could be called adventurous, while the reliably cranky Shawn and a stately, vampish Gershon are clearly having a good time and letting us in on it. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJessica KiangSep 23, 2020
It’s a relief to report that Rifkin’s Festival is, to the ravenous captive, like finding an unexpected stash of dessert: not substantial and not nutritious, but sweet enough to remind you in passing of the good times you once had, despite all that’s happened in the interim. Read full review
54
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 25, 2022
The 86-year-old director could stand to at least polish the material, which in Rifkin’s Festival is so well-worn that it threatens to disintegrate into nothingness. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 28, 2022
Allen almost seems to be going through the motions – his jokes are flat, his stories are poorly focused, and the sense of zany energy that characterized his best films is absent. Read full review
50
The Film StageEthan VestbyJan 27, 2022
Entering the “likely a money-laundering scheme for Spanish businessmen” part of his European travelogue era, Woody Allen turns uniquely narrow-minded and bitter with Rifkin’s Festival, which takes aim at the film culture that’s both alienated and abandoned him this past decade. Exciting though it is to see the proverbial gloves come off, the hands, sadly, don’t get very dirty. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 25, 2022
Like a dream you’ve half forgotten by the time you get to the breakfast table, it’s neither good enough to make much of an impression or bad enough to completely forget. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 24, 2022
To watch Rifkin’s Festival and Allen’s previous film, A Rainy Day in New York (2019), is to wonder whether this is a filmmaker who has ceased to understand the world. Read full review
50
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 23, 2020
It’s a familiar watch and a pallid reminder of better days we’ve had with the director. Read full review
50
IndieWireKaleem AftabSep 23, 2020
As the film explores San Sebastian — with its marvelous architecture and sprawling beaches — it starts to feel like Rifkin’s Festival is content to get lost with its anti-hero rather than trying to find a substantial narrative to support his existence. Read full review
40
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 18, 2020
A scenic summer-wind romcom that was presumably a good time for everyone involved. Saying the same for the audience would be a stretch, but on the spectrum of late Woody Allen clunkers, it registers on the mild, instantly-evaporating end of the scale, unlikely to change the positions of any loyalists, detractors, ex-fans or distributors with regard to the controversy-tailed filmmaker. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 9, 2023
A flat, lukewarm glass of Spanish sidra without anything to recommend it beyond the lovely San Sebastian scenery and the fact that it is what is alleged to be Allen’s next to last film. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 22, 2021
As Rifkin’s Festival drones on, the wastefulness grows offensive in a manner that’s unusual even for Woody Allen’s misfires. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJan 28, 2022
Overall pacing is flaccid and too many scenes peter out when they should punch. But perhaps the movie’s biggest infraction is that there’s hardly a chuckle in it. Read full review
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