We're All Going to the World's Fair
Utopia | Release Date: April 15, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarApr 21, 2022
Schoenbrun, a native speaker of the language of the internet, has uploaded into the cinematic landscape one of the most thoughtful depictions of self-discovery in the digital age. Through Casey’s plight of suburban isolation, the artist reaches out to us from a corner of the web’s endless abyss with an unmissable invitation, quite literally demonstrating the transcendental prowess of storytelling. Read full review
91
The PlaylistChristian GallichioApr 14, 2022
While a bit too opaque near the end, and perhaps not the horror show that one might expect, it’s nevertheless an impressive debut. Read full review
90
PolygonJoshua RiveraApr 15, 2022
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair isn’t just a movie about connecting, it’s about becoming. It’s a powerful acknowledgement of how confounding and frightening young adulthood can be. But it’s also a film about hope. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenApr 29, 2022
No matter where the film leaves us narratively, however, its evocation of estrangement—even, perhaps especially, as part of an Internet where we can talk to anyone at anytime—is both emotionally palpable and cinematically potent. Read full review
85
The AtlanticDavid SimsMay 21, 2022
By framing her characters’ inventiveness with boldly bizarre imagery, Schoenbrun is getting at what makes internet horror such a unique mode of cinema. The viewer is unsettled not just by the content, but by their ambiguous relationship to who’s sharing it. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeApr 25, 2022
Accepting the World’s Fair Challenge isn’t a way to experience a The Ring-like challenge that will probably lead to horrors beyond one’s wildest imagination, it’s a way to be part of something, damn the consequences. Schoenbrun’s impressive debut latches onto that idea of online communities, coming-of-age, and finding one’s own people through a genuinely uncomfortable and unique horror story unlike any other. Read full review
83
The Film StageMatt CipollaFeb 3, 2021
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair isn’t an exposé on internet culture or social media. Nothing about it is shocking, nor is it meant to be. That’s why it feels so real when it reaches its natural conclusion. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 3, 2021
By the film’s end, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair proves its ASMR-like power: It’s impossible to shake, even when it makes you want to do just that. Read full review
83
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpFeb 3, 2021
At its grimmest the film hits peaks of nerve-shredding dread. But more than being just frightening, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is confidently weird and deeply sad. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyApr 29, 2022
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair doesn’t quite go where it’s expected, or hit the most obvious talking points. It offers something all the more intriguing – a last-minute twist that forces us to reexamine what we’d already accepted as either truth or fiction. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 27, 2022
What an uncanny, exhilarating experience. Read full review
80
Screen RantAlexander HarrisonApr 22, 2022
Intelligently crafted and delicately performed, We're All Going to the World's Fair is fundamentally a portrait of loneliness, and explores how discovering an online community can alleviate, or exacerbate, a person's feelings of isolation. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaApr 15, 2022
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is a moody, slow-burn horror drama about loneliness online. Read full review
80
Film ThreatNorman GidneyFeb 3, 2021
Anchored by an iconic turn from Cobb, in her first lead role, and consistently daring choices from both star and director, We Are All Going to the World’s Fair is one hell of a trip. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJourdain SearlesFeb 3, 2021
Cobb’s face is a canvas for a world of yearning that can’t fully be revealed to us because she doesn’t have the language to articulate it yet. That truth allows the film to feel both specific and universal at the same time. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 19, 2022
A standard setup for a horror film, but filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (who, among other projects, was ringleader/executive producer for the equally slippery SXSW 2016 feature collective:unconscious) has not made a horror film, but a fractured portrait of teenage malaise, of deceptions (both of self and others), and of the awkward probing of a cocoon’s inner shell. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMark HansonMay 3, 2021
Throughout, Jane Schoenbrun reveals themself to be adroitly plugged into both the current technological and sociological landscape. Read full review
70
Little White LiesLillian CrawfordApr 29, 2022
Cobb is excellent at toeing the lines between calm and unhinged, often fluctuating between them and never really settling on either. Read full review
70
TheWrapLena WilsonApr 26, 2022
It’s particularly sad that viewers can’t spend more time in Casey’s world, since newcomer Cobb is this film’s greatest asset. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 14, 2022
In the tradition of internet science fiction, “World’s Fair” teases the boundary between the actual and the virtual, though in a frame of mind that is quietly ruminative rather than wildly speculative. Read full review
65
SlashfilmBen PearsonFeb 3, 2021
Is this a horror movie? A mystery? A thriller? There are elements of all of those things here, but the movie defies easy categorization, and its low-fi vibe and metaphor-heavy approach will not be everyone’s cup of tea. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair seems uninterested in adhering to genre trappings, instead focusing its attention on ideas about change. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyApr 15, 2022
Through Cobb, we take an alarming and up-to-date look into the life of any average contemporary teenager that grows up and establishes a voice mostly online, struggling to close the gap between the real and virtual. It’s that performance that elevates a film that often rings to be less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyApr 29, 2022
The film’s narrative obliqueness heightens its gallery-piece surrealism. What payoffs we get are affecting, though. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 12, 2022
The lack of frights and jolts and general mesmerizing tone of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair make it “horror” only in terms of the mood. It feels more like a stab at social commentary and satire. Read full review
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