Look at Me

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The wry filmmaker has created an urbane society of family and friends as ridiculously pretentious and hypocritical as they are cultured, accomplished, and posh.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

An engrossing new drama from France.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A marvelous, uncommonly observant, and unexpectedly rousing group portrait.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This audience-pleaser is smart and acerbic. Jaoui has an uncanny ear - as director, co-writer and part of the inspired ensemble cast - for human foibles, self-deception, celebrity worship and female body issues.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

While Look at Me at times falls into familiar plotting, it never offers false hope or false characters.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Brilliant, blistering account of the many ways fame deforms a star, his family and his fans.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

What makes Look at Me such a deeply satisfying experience is its ability to combine insightful character portraits like this with wickedly funny situations that slyly skewer all-too-human weaknesses.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This bonbon spiked with malice is a triumph for Jaoui, who takes witty and wounding measure of the small betrayals that leave bruises on us all.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

With a light, sometimes hilarious touch, Look at Me deflates the pretensions and self-obsessed nature of a group of wealthy Parisian literati, but its observations about the effects of fame and success and our natural desire to fan them as high as they can go, apply to anyone within range of reality-TV culture.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A witty and psychologically perceptive look at the Parisian literary scene.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In lesser hands, all this might border on misanthropy. But Jaoui's direction, plus the note-perfect cast, manage two redeeming feats:

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The thing about a movie like this is, the characters may be French, but they're more like people I know than they could ever be in the Hollywood remake.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A movie of biting social observation. And it masterfully avoids Manichaean simplicity.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Directed by Agnès Jaoui, who made the equally delightful "The Taste of Others," this comedy of manners with a serious purpose centers on a group of loosely connected neurotics, all working in the rarefied worlds of amateur chorales.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Punchy dialogue, excellent thesping and a real feel for the universal tuning fork of great classical music make this a prime candidate for international arthouse play.

The New Yorker David Denby

A tender, indignant, but also very worldly movie.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The latest in a series of stiletto-sharp social comedies by the French filmmakers Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A witty and acute examination of friendship, ambition and betrayal in the Parisian literary world.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Look at Me marks the character's shift from being the object of attention to the subject of her own dreams.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Look at Me is on the talky side, but like Jaoui's directing debut, "The Taste of Others," it offers uniformly excellent performances and smart observations on social and family interactions.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It is for a particular audience - those who like films that concentrate on character rather than plot, and who aren't put off by subtitles.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

While Jaoui's film is interesting to watch, it dawdles enough to lose its storytelling grip.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Little in a Jaoui film is particularly original, but it's all perfectly convincing.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The film satisfies in much the same way Allen's movie-a-year comedies used to satisfy.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Jaoui directs with flow and affection, and she plays Sylvia sensitively. Bacri has the right middle-aged assortment of humors.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The French title is Comme une image ("like an image"), but Tennessee Williams's phrase "the catastrophe of success" seems more appropriate.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Smart, absorbing movie.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Look at Me is a virtuoso exercise in domestic tension - with the emphasis on "exercise."

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The multitalented Jaoui and Bacri excel on every level; her direction is efficient and unobtrusive, their script dissects the nuances of corruption by celebrity with a razor-sharp scalpel, and they deliver a pair of subtly unsparing performances.

Slate David Edelstein

This is a bleak, unresolved film, with no release. What keeps it from being a mortal bummer is the music-exquisite sacred choral works, plus Mozart.