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
100
IndieWireEric KohnMay 22, 2013
A wholly original and thoroughly surprising fusion of sensory overload and liberal philosophy bound to confuse and provoke in equal measures. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaAug 29, 2014
The Congress, playing fast and loose with a source novel by Stanislaw Lem, splits from its version of reality at the 45-minute mark, and at that point becomes a decadent post-modern classic. Read full review
87
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 22, 2013
The first half of “The Congress,” while still fascinating, does suffer a bit from keeping its focus on the gripes and accusations between Hollywood actors and producers...Once the Philip K. Dick-meets-”Inception” second half kicks in, the implications grow more universal. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 5, 2014
The film has a transcendent spookiness. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 25, 2014
Israeli director Ari Forman, whose 2009 "Waltz with Bashir" earned a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination, is a master at exploiting diverse animated styles, and draws a brave starring performance from a performer who, in her mid-40s, seems to be just hitting her stride. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 4, 2014
Ari Folman’s genre mash-up The Congress could use a freakier title, something either more appealing or appalling to go with the weird, sometimes wonderful visions flowing through it. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 3, 2014
This potent emotional undercurrent goes a long way toward counteracting the movie’s clumsier moments, carrying us aloft to a finale that, in its strange mix of trepidation and tenderness, is truly sublime. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 28, 2014
In conjuring a fantastical slippery slope in which technology, pharmaceuticals and the entertainment industry co-star in a takeover of our lives, The Congress boasts a propulsive image-making pull. Read full review
80
Total FilmStephen KellyAug 25, 2014
Whether visual or thematic, Folman’s bold, eccentric ideas never fail to astound; but they also never truly cohere into a satisfying narrative throughline. Read full review
80
CineVueD.W. MaultAug 25, 2014
For a film that looks at a believably nightmarish future, The Congress sits out of its time; a feverish relic of a post-revolutionary cinema of the mind that attempts to transcend the confines of a bloated filmic space that appears no longer interested in discourse, and would rather parley its audience into a stupefied boredom. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickSep 3, 2014
The Congress doesn’t fully live up to its lofty ambitions, but it does attempt something most filmmakers wouldn’t even dream of — a dystopian blend of live-action and animation that acidly comments on some of Hollywood’s touchiest issues before drifting off into an existential fog. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereAug 29, 2014
There’s something to be said for a movie that manages to baffle and dazzle in equal measure. If Daffy Duck had taken up political and media theory, his brain might look like this. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonAug 27, 2014
Like its actress, it's an ambitious knockout that doesn't quite live up to its potential. But its argument is worth hearing: Instead of crying for the collapse of one actress, Folman is crying for the collapse of civilization, the triumph of the synthetic over the real. Read full review
67
HitfixGuy LodgeAug 25, 2014
It's precisely as bonkers as it sounds, and at two hours, both wearisome and claustrophobic... But flashes of fury and beauty remain. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 22, 2013
Overloaded with too many ideas, it does scant justice to the more interesting ones that crop up, while regularly diverting from any sort of central narrative to follow tenuous and ill-explained threads that end up in a foggy limbo. But just when it threatens to wholly frustrate, someone cracks an enjoyable inside-baseball meta movie-making joke and we're back on side for a bit. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 4, 2014
Lem’s story is merely a springboard for Folman’s wildly sprawling meditations on what the advent of virtual performance means — for artistic integrity, creative spirit, celebrity culture, human identity, even our hold on reality. Read full review
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