Welcome to Me
Alchemy | Release Date: May 1, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 5, 2016
This is a tragicomic fable about an all-too-real social predicament rather a wish-fulfillment fantasy, and the tragic result may be that hardly anyone notices how good it is, or the sickest, weirdest, most triumphant performance of Wiig’s career. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 7, 2015
Wiig manages to make Alice funny as hell, endearing, sad and sometimes a little frightening. There’s not an ounce of condescension or preciousness in the performance. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChristopher GreyApr 27, 2015
The film rejects a fawning (or even particularly detailed) account of mental illness in favor of a plunge into the deep end of a bottomless ego. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 7, 2015
Yes, it has a bit of the watching-races-for-the-wrecks feel to it, and by the end of the film, it's not clear Piven has a destination in mind, or whether it's important to arrive at one. But this is a performance that demands your attention. It also deserves it. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichMay 1, 2015
It’s obvious that Welcome to Me is about an unusual person, but Shira Piven’s dark comedy makes it perfectly clear that the “me” of the title is no mere eccentric. On the contrary, this tragicomic oddity is that rarest of birds: a genuinely funny movie about mental illness. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 30, 2015
By turns touching, amusing and genuinely disturbing, it defies expectations and easy categorization, forgoing obvious laughs and cheap emotional payoffs in favor of something much odder and more interesting. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 23, 2015
Funny, dark, and riding a very fine line in its depiction of mental illness, it may be the best thing we could hope would emerge from the side of Wiig that gave us Gilly. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 23, 2015
A strange and often startlingly inspired media/mental-illness comedy. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMay 8, 2015
At turns horribly funny and simply horrific, Piven's film suggests our therapeutic age has reduced us all to psychic cripples who resort to emotional exhibitionism in lieu of honest self-examination and self-expression. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 7, 2015
As she demonstrated in “The Skeleton Twins,” the former “Saturday Night Live” comedian has grown so adept at rendering troubled characters without offering sideline commentary that you can’t help but fall in love with her, even as laughter gives way to uncomfortable silence. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 7, 2015
The movie is small, but the actors make it seem larger, like binoculars turned around the right way. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 7, 2015
This showcase for Wiig is sufficiently absurd to make real-world parallels laughable. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaMay 1, 2015
A humorous if occasionally horrific pitch-black satire. Read full review
75
HitfixDrew McWeenyFeb 23, 2015
Shira Piven, working from a script by Elliot Laurence, has directed a beautiful, sad, sweet and funny movie that deals honestly with mental illness while also earning big laughs and offering up some hard truths. And it helps that Kristen Wiig gives the best sustained performance of her entire career in the lead. Read full review
75
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicFeb 23, 2015
None of this would be as funny if it was done by anyone other than Wiig, who has never been funnier. Her crass, narcissistic, capricious Alice is her greatest creation. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 1, 2015
Welcome to Me might as well have been called The Kristen Wiig Show, for better or for worse. It makes a splendid showcase for the brilliant actress’s brand of mousy absurdism, and for her ability to modulate tone. The film dances between hilarity and disquiet, between goofiness and pathos. But I’m not even sure it can be called a movie; it feels like a setup and a character in search of a story. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 30, 2015
Though some of the jabs "Me" takes at reality TV are clever, the film, like Alice, tends to fracture at key moments. What makes it worth watching is Wiig. Read full review
70
The DissolveKeith PhippsApr 30, 2015
Welcome To Me never develops much momentum, doesn’t always know what to do with supporting players like Leigh, and builds toward a finale that plays as a bit too neat. Yet even this doesn’t betray the character’s cracked integrity. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 28, 2015
This spiky, pushy, sometimes upsetting comedy finds Wiig creating something whole and alive out of her apparent contradictions. Read full review
60
EmpireKat PooleMar 28, 2016
It’s a mesmerising turn from Wiig, but the script leaves her working overtime to carry a story that doesn’t delve much deeper than its initial premise. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 30, 2015
Kristen Wiig is scary. That’s a good thing. It’s part of her appeal as a comedian, and crucial in the funny-weird comedy-drama Welcome to Me, which uses the working-without-a-net aspect of Wiig’s humor to unsettling effect. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloApr 29, 2015
The bold, arresting movie doesn’t really work, but is nonetheless almost impossible to stop watching. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 7, 2015
While Kristen Wiig fully commits to her bizarre, mentally ill character in Welcome to Me, the result still feels more like an extended sketch than a movie. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 6, 2015
Welcome to Me isn’t laughing with Alice, but at her, in what seems like a harsh reaction to mental illness. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 4, 2015
The best thing that can be said about Welcome to Me, as written by Eliot Laurence and directed by Shira Piven, is that it attempts to portray the real Borderline Personality Disorder as opposed to the Hollywood movie version of the disease. Unfortunately, that's about all it does. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 28, 2015
It’s just not that funny, not that sad and not on target, satirically. This “Welcome” isn’t nearly welcoming enough. Read full review
47
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 1, 2015
There’s a sketch, or a short film, or even an Adult Swim series to be mined from these characters and situations, but as a feature film, Welcome to Me comes off like taunting followed by hugs, where neither feels genuine. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 8, 2015
It all adds up to a film that is at times interesting, and at times funny in spite of itself. But more than all that, it exudes a sense of heart-rending, chest-penetrating sadness. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedApr 29, 2015
The movie is nothing more than a labored series of skits that play like ideas from rejected TV pilots. Read full review
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