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Lunacy
Metascore
63 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    90
    One of the best films of the year.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    88
    Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade (interesting combination, no?).
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    Svankmajer has crafted his finest live-action feature to date.
  4. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    83
    Svankmajer's nihilistic story isn't for everyone, but he skillfully manages its disturbing execution in ways no one else could, and he brings it across in a darkly comedic way that encourages simultaneous laughter, horror, and thought. If that isn't art, what is?
  5. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    75
    The film is imaginative but ugly, with bodily functions an unending source for grotesque and revolting imagery.
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Richard James Havis
    70
    It's a fully formed film which transcends polemic by an intelligent use of the imagination.
  7. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    67
    Its view of mankind is unkind, to say the least, but any race that can produce such remarkably garish gore as this is perhaps salvageable somehow, someday.
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    63
    While Lunacy leaves you with the impression that Svankmajer is more expressive with cutlets than he is with his atypically human-dominated dreamscape, some of the images are doozies.
  9. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    At nearly two hours Lunacy becomes repetitive, at first ingeniously and then with a slowly dulling edge. The meat parade ceases to shock.
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    60
    For all its visual surprises and visceral shocks, Lunacy is still the kind of film that is easier to admire than it is to actually like.
  11. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    50
    While dinner and a movie is in theory a great idea, I'd avoid eating before taking in Lunacy.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    50
    Lunacy feels programmatic, the repetitive working through of an idea that had me checking my watch.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Lunacy is dark, scary, and yucky--even by the Czech animator's own standards.
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    Mr. Svankmajer's provocations skew toward the intellectual and the shivery rather than the pop and the visceral, and at his best, he doesn't just get under your skin, but also deep in your head, too. Here, unfortunately, he does neither, despite some marvelous stop-motion animated sequences involving a literal moveable feast of severed animal tongues, loose eyeballs and errant brains.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Jay Weissberg
    50
    More moving animal parts and less human pontificating would make a stronger case for a tale already rich in imagery. Another drawback is Liska, too one-dimensional to stand against Triska's overpowering performance.
  16. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Weird anachronisms (cars, telephones, home computers) contribute to the craziness, but despite the copious imagination on display, this is a fairly long haul.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Joshc
    7
    Lunacy is Svankmajer's most political work—or, rather, the one that most explicitly announces its political ambitions. By film's end, amidst a gonzo flurry of chicken feathers, sadomasochistic violence, and infectious laughter, a blue-balled Jean is caught between a rock and a hard place, a nut and a bigger nut—a standstill reflective of our current state of affairs. This is a constantly buzzing tinker-toy of sensualist shocks and homegrown invention, but Svankmajer makes the mistake of deconstructing the film for us during an introductory onscreen address and, then, saddling characters with explanatory rhetoric about the degradation of authority and the body's drive for dominance. The film's great irony is that its hulking animal tongues conspire for our pleasure while Svankmajer's own loose lingua acts as a buzzkill.… Full Review »
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