Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Film Movement | Release Date: October 15, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfOct 28, 2021
Hamaguchi has a beautiful outlook on mistakes and the complex emotions that make up humanity, and his tenderness toward each character he brings to life makes him one of the best storytellers working today. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 14, 2021
A poignant, sometimes piercing triptych of tales, each one predicated on chance encounters and romantic possibilities (the original Japanese title translates as “Coincidence and Imagination”), it finds Hamaguchi in playful, beguiling and quietly affecting form. Read full review
100
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMar 5, 2021
It feels a complete whole––a wry intertwining dialectic on modern desires––yet each scene is uniquely bracing: beautifully poised, exquisitely observed, and even erotically charged––rife with unabashed seduction, though always close enough to farce to keep things kösher and to keep you guessing (it’s telling that we barely glimpse a kiss). Read full review
93
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 12, 2022
Each of the three short stories making up Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s new omnibus film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy could stand on its own as a work of top-tier drama. Yet when stitched together, with the themes of coincidence and kindness being the only real connective tissue, the narratives spin themselves into something just shy of cinematic profundity. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 14, 2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a perfect entry point into Hamaguchi’s work. Not every episode works equally well or hits as hard, but both times I watched this movie, I found something to admire, consider, argue with and weep over. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonOct 11, 2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a love letter to the art of spinning a good yarn, but it’s also a sharply observed paean to the lies and truths we tell ourselves so that we may function from day to day. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 5, 2021
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s film is an alternately scathing, erotic, terrifying, and affirming fable of the primordial power of storytelling. Read full review
85
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganOct 15, 2021
Though [Hamaguchi's] highly anticipated Drive My Car distills these musings in a slightly more meticulous manner, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy cuts to the chase in a way that’s quaintly quirky—and never dull to watch unfold. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMar 5, 2021
This one is every bit as static and chatty as fans have come to expect; rooted to its two-actors-in-a-room reality, but also charming and characteristically unpredictable for the ways it wiggles free of it like a loose tooth. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 13, 2022
This female-led triptych of stories, with its deft, empathetic camerawork and intimate, intricately crafted character sketches, is a minor masterpiece in its own right. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 11, 2022
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is not quite the equal of the same film-maker’s Oscar contender, Drive My Car. Both films, however, share a deceptively languid pacing and find an aching humanity in middle-class people in crisis. Read full review
80
Little White LiesTrevor JohnstonFeb 11, 2022
An absorbing set of vignettes, though the third section definitely ups the emotional ante. Read full review
80
EmpireJake CunninghamFeb 8, 2022
If not Hamaguchi’s best, this is a gracefully performed and expertly detailed collection of stories, revealing the delicate and unassuming magic to be found in simple conversation. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterMar 5, 2021
Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy allows Hamaguchi to return to themes he has explored in previous work from the way life is measured in twists of fate to a sense of duality in individual lives and characters. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMar 5, 2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is full of understated, melancholy poetry. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 5, 2021
This trio of stories is elegant and amusing, with a delicacy of touch and real imaginative warmth. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubLawrence GarciaOct 13, 2021
Hamaguchi’s deliberate disruptions of narrative flow are not crude storytelling gestures so much as attempts to create epiphanic moments out of time, where the rift between imagination and reality ceases to exist—at least until the wheel of fortune turns round once more. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 11, 2021
Each of these episodes is well acted, follows a reasonably conventional three-act structure and emphasizes interesting female characters in a compelling situation — which is more than can be said for many portmanteau films, where one segment is markedly more satisfying than the others. But it also suggests an ongoing resistance on Hamaguchi’s part to engage with the feature form itself. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 15, 2022
The stories share a beguiling, meditative strangeness that draws us in. Hamaguchi sets up our expectations, then upends them with this revelation about a character or that wrinkle in the plot. Read full review
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