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Friday Night
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    Ms. Denis is one of contemporary film's best stylists. Friday Night is part tone poem, part love song, and all pure magic.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    The most sensuous and intimate work of cinema of the past few years, a film that luxuriates in the immediacy of the moment. There is no guilt to the act, only exhilaration, joy and freedom. At least for the moment.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    90
    Seasoned with amusing bits of fantasy, like a pizza topping that briefly curls into a smile, Friday Night captures the city at its most inviting, alive with the feeling that wonderful things can happen to ordinary people.
  4. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    90
    Denis and her editor, Nelly Quettier, have assumed that they do not have to show the details of sex because we know them already. Instead, Denis and Quettier create a small visual poem on the subject.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    Ziplessness has rarely looked so inviting, nor have a couple of actors seemed so much like real people -- attractive, but hardly hunks of perfection -- who happened to get lucky, and are delighted to throw some of their guiltless good fortune our way.
  6. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    A rare and tender delight.
  7. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    A mesmerizing erotic odyssey.
  8. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    Combines spareness in plot and dialogue with luxurious, sensual technique in such a way that the craft sometimes overwhelms the slender story.
  9. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    70
    Beguiling and intoxicating.
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    Richer in metaphor than narrative drive.
  11. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    70
    The movie is not a bore, exactly, but it’s certainly a stunt and a disappointment, for at first the situation is provocative. [16 & 23 June 2003, p. 200]
    All this critic's reviews
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    63
    This movie gives us mostly the "what" when we need a bit of the "why" as well. In her other, better work, Denis always supplies it.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    It is driven by the finely expressed -- if nearly mute -- performance of Lemercier. We learn a lot about this woman and her emotional state from Lemercier's subtle body language. As for Lindon's Jean, well, it's enough that he's there and doesn't require batteries.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    63
    If you give yourself over to it, this romantic tale of a liberating one-night stand proves oddly seductive and generates a warm afterglow.
  15. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    63
    Has a sultry and complex psychological intent all its own, yet it's reminiscent of some earlier Denis works, including ''Nenette and Boni.''
  16. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    Dialogue is kept to a bare minimum, but the film's complex underlying sound mix -- a subtle symphony of faintly heard voices and the muted sounds of cars -- adds a haunting texture to what could have been the slightest of stories about a woman's ephemeral victory over emotional numbness.
  17. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rich Cline
    60
    Not terribly engaging, but surprisingly moving.
  18. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    50
    Never makes the leap from a little fantasy about sex with a stranger to a larger story about a woman settling down for life.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    As much as the story, based on a novel by Emmanuèle Bernheim, has the irresistible earmarks of the kind of high-toned bodice-ripper at which the French excel, its cinematic realization is oddly gawky and tepid.
  20. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Its numerous ancillary characters are so closely observed that even those without speaking parts register as people, in a manner than blurs the line between strangeness and intimacy.
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