Fool's Paradise: reviews

What the critics say average 3.5 from 9 outlets

• 5.5 Paste MagazineBrianna Zigler Fool’s Paradise doesn’t come close to clearing the self-imposed hurdle of matching a Chaplin classic or an Ashby satire. But it does sometimes work as a breezy comedy and a satire-lite of vacuous Hollywood, articulated tenfold by the modern Superhero Franchise Industrial Complex. Read
• 5.0 ColliderRoss Bonaime If Day has shown anything with Fool’s Paradise and the long road to get it made, it’s that he has passion and a vision, and a dedication to making a project that works for him. Fool’s Paradise might not work as well as it should, but fingers crossed that Day keeps at it. Read
• 4.2 The PlaylistNick Allen It’s all too passive, and lacking in incisiveness cleverness for its own good, barely served by Day’s nostalgia for better films and voluminous silent stars. Read
• 4.0 The Daily BeastNick Schager Alas, whether quiet or noisy, his big-screen comedy (in theaters May 12) is a satire that’s neither sharp enough to make its industry skewering sting, nor sweet enough to compensate for its toothlessness. Read
• 3.8 Movie NationRoger Moore It’s a relief when the talking/screeching version of Day has an accident and the silent version takes over. He manages the pratfalls and double-takes well enough. He’s no Keaton, Chaplin, Begnini, Sellers or David Hyde Pierce, to name some of the great physical comics of ancient and recent vintage. There’s no shame in that. Read
• 3.0 New York TimesNicolas Rapold There’s something grudgingly admirable about the voluble star essentially spending an entire film doing reactions. But it’s a disastrous move in a Hollywood satire that already needs to be more than a grab bag of jokes. Read
• 2.5 Slant MagazineJake Cole Fool’s Paradise sprints past each of these targets, dealing glancing blows to subjects that have already been obliterated by decades’ worth of Tinseltown parodies. Read
• 2.5 IndiewireSamantha Bergeson The only saving grace of “Fool’s Paradise” is watching Liotta do what he did best. Read
• 1.2 Roger EbertMonica Castillo Overblown caricatures and stale jokes about “don’t you know who I am?!” and going to see his wife’s shaman are as empty as a finished cup of coffee, and unfortunately, this movie has nothing else to offer for a refill. Read