The Forbidden Room
Kino Lorber | Release Date: October 7, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 17, 2015
In emulating the two-strip Technicolor process, it creates a look that’s scratchy and primitive, but also, through the peculiar alchemy of Maddin’s craft, eerily rich and dreamlike, with the depth of an oceanic abyss. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineCarson LundSep 25, 2015
Its utter indulgence in esoterica paradoxically leaves it most vulnerable to the beating heart of this great artist of self-therapy. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 6, 2015
For those attuned to Maddin’s goofy sense of humor, it’s easily the funniest movie he’s ever made—a series of several dozen comic shorts strung together on a ludicrous clothesline. The only downside is that the experience, at just shy of two hours, can be a trifle exhausting. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeb 19, 2015
The Forbidden Room is a cinephile’s delight, another Maddin dream fantasia that’s visually distressed, suffused in feverish melodrama, and strangely poetic. Surrender yourself to its demented genius. The Forbidden Room will trap you in its bewitching spell, and you’ll be better for it. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 18, 2016
This exercise in beauty, derangement and memory can be contemplative or silly. Often it's both, in just the right proportions. Read full review
90
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcySep 19, 2015
The Forbidden Room is a tour de force that takes Maddin’s ambition through a maze of magical melodrama. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiOct 8, 2015
Even by Maddin's standards, it is a pretty wild ride in all aspects, starting with its very concept. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickOct 7, 2015
Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin and Mathieu Amalric contribute cameo appearances in the The Forbidden Room, a visual feast that may be a bit overwhelming for those unfamiliar with Maddin’s work. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonDec 7, 2015
Exquisitely designed, this cornucopia of melodramatic fragments and movie pastiches will enchant Guy Maddin fans. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 26, 2015
The Forbidden Room is often maddening, occasionally beautiful, and ultimately unforgettable. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichOct 8, 2015
For all of its innumerable pleasures, however, The Forbidden Room can feel like too much of a good thing—premiering at Sundance, Maddin’s latest plays like a robust film festival unto itself. Read full review
80
Village VoiceScott TobiasOct 6, 2015
The experience is two-thirds thrilling to one-third enervating, a winning ratio for what's essentially a tightly curated anthology film. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 19, 2015
With no through-story or strong continuity to hold it together, the film does go on a bit and becomes repetitive; it's hard to remain stimulated by the same techniques, however imaginative, at such length without some connective dramatic tissue.... Still, for cinephiles and aficionados of the singular, The Forbidden Room represents a very particular kind of feast. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleSep 19, 2015
The Forbidden Room (2015) is Maddin's aesthetic nearing critical mass, a whimsical, genre-spanning opus that demonstrates the totality of his enigmatic style. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanSep 19, 2015
Maddin’s zeal for old cameras and stocks is matched only by his revelry in evoking an entire genre with a single image. The film’s apogee literally opens up The Book of Climax in a sequence of pure, knowing cinematic joy. Film-lovers, this ludicrous movie is for you. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 6, 2015
On one viewing, at least, it is a typically impenetrable Maddin film: zany one minute, pompous the next. Ardent Maddin admirers, of whom I am not one, might discern a grand design of what often feels like a post-Freudian horror comedy. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis HarveyOct 1, 2015
Delightful and ingenious as much of this is on a moment-to-moment basis, it becomes somewhat wearying over the long haul. Read full review
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