Beyond the Black Rainbow
Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 10
  3. Negative: 3 out of 10
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  1. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Simon Abrams
    May 15, 2012
    88
    Something like a trippy grindhouse homage whose familiar images are refracted through a prism of blacklight posters, Jodorowsky films, and even Rob Zombie's grungy psychotropic sensibility.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    May 16, 2012
    83
    Beyond The Black Rainbow is more surface than substance, but those surfaces are gleamingly polished enough to make for a hypnotic experiment that goes beyond genre pastiche or art-school wankery to seem formally daring.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Mark Holcomb
    May 15, 2012
    80
    At heart, the film is no more (or less) than a brilliantly executed lark, but it's not often that we're reminded with such potency that movies are most delightful as sensory experiences.
  4. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Matt Singer
    May 15, 2012
    80
    Though the finale feels a bit anticlimactic, the lysergic atmosphere, synth-heavy score and logic-resistant story line more than earn Beyond the Black Rainbow's concluding quote, borrowed from another classic midnight movie: "No matter where you go…there you are." See the late show.
  5. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    Jun 6, 2012
    50
    As filmmaking debuts go, Panos Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow is as striking as it is nuts.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    May 18, 2012
    50
    Unless you're among those who still drop acid as a midnight-movie apéritif, your enjoyment of this retro oddity remains far from guaranteed.
  7. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Inkoo Kang
    Jul 1, 2012
    40
    Beyond the Black Rainbow is the kind of movie whose cool-looking trailer entices you to midnight screenings, but the film will bore you so profoundly you'll fall asleep halfway and wake up disoriented during the closing credits.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Mark Feeney
    Jun 7, 2012
    38
    Beyond the Black Rainbow has a doomy, dreamy, druggy, draggy feel that's impressively sustained - until it becomes oppressive, then pointless, then laughable.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    May 17, 2012
    20
    Add two more stars here if zoning out to weirdo-dreamy, '80s public-access TV with a synthesizer soundtrack is your idea of midnight fun. Because this ambitious, but not uninteresting, failure has that in its DNA.
  10. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    May 18, 2012
    12
    His late father directed "Rambo: First Blood,'' but Panos Cosmatos' debut feature couldn't be more different - this would-be cult classic is the movie equivalent of gazing at a lava lamp for nearly two hours.

User Reviews

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User Score
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No user score yet- Awaiting 2 more ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. McCorpse
    2
    this movie was borring as hell. There was a scene where the guy is getting dressed and its doing it in ultra slow motion that when i pressed fast forward it still looked like he was getting dressed slowly...;I. are you kidding me? its not stylish, its not trippy, its not anything but boring.… Full Review »
  2. rocketpackpanda
    1
    The film looks magnificent. That is about the only good thing one can say about this film. The gorgeous cinematography is wasted here as the film simply becomes a meaningless montage off weird images for the sake of weirdness. The actors look like they aren't sure of what they're supposed to be feeling. Frankly I dont blame them, the micro-direction, the ridiculously obtuse-for-no-reason script, the seeming randomness off it all makes for one big **** of a film. The music, could have been great, but the excellent theme music is cut out for a grating hum by the end off it all. It bombards you over the head with all the subtlety of an atom bomb. The film has no point, no meaning, nothing of anything except pretty images really. Even art house directors or Jowordosky have some meaning to their work. This is a brain hammering montage of as many weird things as the director can throw in. And the ending? One of the worst endings in film. It has no conclusion, no rumination it just ends in the middle as if the director/writer ran out of ideas. Save your time and go watch Enter the Void instead if you want to see what a modern mind bender of a film is.… Full Review »