The Dance of Reality
ABKCO Films | Release Date: May 23, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMay 23, 2014
The result will no doubt polarize viewers, as has been the case with his other major works, but it will certainly go down amongst those who see it as one of the most unforgettable films of this or any other year in recent memory. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 22, 2014
The Dance of Reality is the work of a highly disciplined anarchist, whose principal weapon against authority is his own imagination. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 21, 2014
As a close look at Jodorowsky’s work reveals, the line between “cult artist” and “cult leader” can be blurry. The line only gets blurrier with The Dance Of Reality, Jodorowsky’s first movie in 23 years, and the best thing he’s done, film-wise, since "The Holy Mountain." Read full review
90
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonMay 20, 2014
The Dance of Reality may be Alejandro Jodorowsky's best film, and certainly, in a filmography top-heavy with freak-show hyperbole and symbology stew, the one most invested in narrative meaning. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMay 29, 2014
Compared to his previous films, The Dance of Reality offers a nearly coherent narrative and a gentle, reconciliatory tone. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonAug 27, 2015
The Dance of Reality is a rich and expressive new offering from a man who has always tried to sculpt something resembling cinematic poetry, whatever that might look like. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 23, 2014
Jodorowsky’s fondness for the surreal and grotesque is in full evidence here. What makes his films so captivating, however, isn’t their strangeness, but their refusal to divide the world into good and bad, even when it’s easy to do so. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 21, 2014
A full-bodied and mischievous autobiography in the spirit of Federico Fellini’s "Amarcord," Alejandro Jodorowsky’s return to filmmaking after 28 years of financial frustration explodes with great ideas. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 4, 2014
Crammed to bursting with the director’s trademark magical realism. Occasionally marred by budgetary constraints, this is nevertheless a welcome return for an artist who truly deserves the sobriquet: El Maestro. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 5, 2014
The Dance of Reality, which deserves a place along Amarcord as a fantastical take on coming of age, is the work of a wise and experienced old soul with the heart and curiosity of a young man in love with life. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMay 30, 2014
The 85-year-old Chilean-born auteur returns this week with his latest directorial attempt, The Dance of Reality, an intensely personal, deeply felt, if at times solipsistic autobiographical work about his childhood in Tocopilla, a seaside town at the edge of the Chilean desert. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 29, 2014
For all the spectacular weirdness, Jodorowsky manages to generate real emotion. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 22, 2014
At times exquisitely attuned to the commingling of the bitterly funny and tragic, and at other times an eye-roll-worthy collection of ready-made fetish videos (Flores is one brave avatar of outré sexuality), The Dance of Reality is nonetheless proof that the legendary provocateur is still a font of out-there invention. Read full review
70
The DissolveNoel MurrayMay 20, 2014
It’s more gentle and fanciful in tone, and though it’s as episodic and digressive as Jodorowsky’s best-known work, the various pieces add up to a clear, not-so-odd narrative. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasFeb 5, 2014
At more than two hours, The Dance of Reality unquestionably has its longueurs, but on balance it is alive with enough images and ideas for several movies — as if Jodorowsky were afraid he might have to wait 20 more years before making another. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 22, 2014
Jodorowsky throws everything and several kitchen sinks into the film, yet it all has its place, and the overall effect is not of the headachey mess it would be in anyone else’s hands, but of a kind of joyous, absurdist melange of highbrow concepts, personal memoir and potty humor. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 13, 2014
Even when it is at its most esoteric, The Dance of Reality is always brimming with passion and a daring originality. That helps smooth over the flaws, such as its general staginess and his self-indulgent tendencies. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 22, 2014
Jodorowsky turns his own youth into an odd, hypnotic mishmash. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonFeb 5, 2014
The Dance of Reality is a rich pageant of nostalgic narcissism laced with New Age mysticism and fortune-cookie wisdom. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMay 29, 2014
The Dance of Reality may not succeed, but it may hold some interest to cinephiles as a relic of a kind of extravagant, overheated personal cinema that doesn't exist anymore. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineClayton DillardMay 19, 2014
Alejandro Jodorowsky never manages to transcend the sense that he's indulging himself and participating in a hollow introspection unworthy of his prior cinema. Read full review
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