The Congress
Independent | Release Date: August 29, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 25, 2014
[Folman's] film is an alluring curio, a protest against the digital frontier which gets stuck with a knotty internal paradox – it starts out as thoroughly its own experiment, and ends up like a counterfeit of too many others. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 13, 2014
Folman’s vision is just too personal and obtuse, and the result can feel rather like watching someone else drop acid, enjoying their giddy descriptions of all the pretty colours but unable to fully engage. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinAug 11, 2014
A fascinating and visually impressive intellectual helter-skelter ride, but the lack of narrative coherence lets down its promising sci-fi concepts and satire. Read full review
60
The DissolveNoel MurrayJul 14, 2014
Too much of Ari Folman’s half-animated science-fiction feature The Congress feels just a bit off—but every now and then, the concept, the performances, and Folman’s visual flair combine to produce something extraordinary. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 22, 2013
Ambition markedly outstrips achievement in The Congress, a visionary piece of speculative fiction that drops the ball after a fine set-up. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksMay 22, 2013
The Congress contains tricks aplenty and ideas in abundance. The problem comes in herding these scattered, floating elements towards a satisfying whole. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 5, 2014
It’s fascinating and boring, intriguing and exasperating, but ultimately it felt like a jambalaya of ideas that didn’t quite mesh into a satisfying experience. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 28, 2014
Ari Folman's meta-commentary on Hollywood in the soulless digital age starts off promisingly, like a Charlie Kaufman mind scrambler. But then it spirals into logy animated nonsense. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 27, 2014
It’s a folly of the first order, but one that many people will nonetheless want to see, if only because it’s so out there. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 27, 2014
Wright is terrific – sensitive and alert – in the live-action opening. But that opening runs more than 45 minutes long, a way too heavy-handed preamble to the crazed animation to come, and the actress’ vocal delivery – soft-spoken, gently bewildered – is too soporific to pull off lines like, “Look at me, I’m your prophet of doom.” Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 24, 2014
The film lacks the manic fly-by-night invention of, say, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or even the ripe erotic ambiguity of something like Avatar. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 5, 2014
On the one hand, there's a thrill in such experimentalism. On the other, it doesn't always deliver a fully satisfying moviegoing experience. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 4, 2014
It’s almost painful to watch the immense promise of The Congress, Ari Folman’s spectacularly ambitious experiment, dissipate into nothing. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 22, 2013
Apart from its general knock against ageism in Hollywood, The Congress doesn’t have much insight to offer on the subject. Read full review
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