Happy as Lazzaro: reviews

What the critics say average 8.4 from 9 outlets

• 10 New York TimesA.O. Scott A rich sense of mystery pervades this movie. You succumb to its strangeness the way that a child is enveloped in a bedtime story, trusting the teller even when you don?t fully understand the tale or know where it?s going. Read
• 10 Roger EbertTomris Laffly Easily among this year?s finest films and laced with an unapologetic social message, ?Happy As Lazzaro? dares one to imagine a reality where each individual would task themselves to be as selfless and morally whole as its main protagonist. Read
• 10 Time OutJoseph Walsh With a rich, textured plot in which things are never quite what they seem, Rohrwacher paints a magical portrait of the decay of rural life, intertwining the past and the present in a work that is as exhilarating as it is sublime. Read
• 9.0 Los Angeles TimesJustin Chang ?Happy as Lazzaro? is slow to reveal its full shape: It?s a realist snapshot of downtrodden lives that gradually takes on shadings of fable and myth, a deceptively plain story that, by the end, all but glows with wonderment and surprise. Read
• 8.3 IndiewireEric Kohn The movie lulls you into its unpredictable rhythms, and a striking poetry creeps into the material, finally overtaking it. Read
• 8.3 The A.V. ClubLawrence Garcia Poised somewhere between despondency and hope, its conclusion suggests that, unable to see pure goodness even when it?s right before our eyes, we unwittingly snuff it out. Yet that goodness will endure?and it will outlast us. Read
• 8.0 Rolling StoneDavid Fear But what starts out as an impressive mix of various classic-Italian-cinema strains turns into something much richer, rewarding and singular. Rohrwacher isn?t interested in resurrecting the ghosts of movies past so much as channeling the spirit of the Brothers Grimm and modern-day anger. Read
• 6.0 FotogramasPHILIPP ENGEL The film is made with a decadent documentary aesthetic that makes think in the great Visconti (and many other directors). It's almost sublime and it means a great step very, very important in the short but wonderful filmography of the Rohrwachers. Read
• 6.0 The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van Hoeij The main problem of Happy as Lazzaro is that it's unclear what Rohrwacher finally wants to say in part two, which combines the near-documentary realism of her first feature with the occasional flights of fancy of her second. Read