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Persepolis
Metascore
90 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    While so many films about coming of age involve manufactured dilemmas, here is one about a woman who indeed does come of age, and magnificently.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    100
    Persepolis, the superb film based on Satrapi's graphic memoirs of the same name, is a riveting odyssey in pictures and words. It's unlike any journal you've read or any animated movie you've seen.
  3. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    100
    Cinematic poetry in black and white. It also is a deeply affecting tale of the power of resilience and an unflagging sense of humor through the worst of situations
  4. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    100
    While avoiding specious bromides about universality, Persepolis insists on communicating with its audience, and insists that communication and empathy are the keys to our survival.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    The movie sparkles with witty self-awareness.
  6. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    100
    Fascinating memoir of coming of age in Iran.
  7. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    100
    It's not to be missed in any language. In a year that has given us such marvelous animated movies as "Ratatouille" and "Paprika," this vibrant, sly and moving personal odyssey takes pride of place.
  8. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    100
    A completely different kind of animated movie that, even more than "Ratatouille," reimagines what the medium can do.
  9. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    100
    If "Ratatouille" taught the world that rats have feelings too, Persepolis teaches the same thing about the people of Iran, who in the current political climate are probably in greater danger of being eradicated.
  10. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    91
    In a stroke of voice-casting genius, the voices of Marjane and her mother are provided by real-life mother and daughter Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, respectively, both of whom bring heft and measured emotion to the characters.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    91
    The two main points Persepolis makes are that strife is relative, and all politics are personal.
  12. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    90
    The filmmakers were right to believe that a live-action version of this story would have failed to achieve the universality Persepolis does.
  13. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    90
    Satrapi's parents ship her off to a French school in Vienna, but she's rudderless, ungrounded. She's drawn back to a devastated Tehran, where she can't design a life, either. This great film, by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, is that life, designed. It freed her mind; it frees ours.
  14. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    90
    Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation--though it moves fluidly enough, and its drawings have a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of the cross-promoted-to-saturation CGI-'toon juggernauts--but because it translates a sensitive, introspective, true-to-life, "adult" comic story into moving pictures.
  15. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    90
    Persepolis, austere as it may look, is full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.
  16. Variety
    Reviewed by: Lisa Nesselson
    90
    This autobiographical tour de force is completely accessible and art of a very high order.
  17. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    A dazzlingly smart and entertaining animated feature by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, looks like a black-and-white graphic novel come to life.
  18. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    Though you might have a hard time discussing some of the film's verbal descriptions of torture with young ones, Persepolis will prove a worthwhile movie for thoughtful teens.
  19. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    88
    Without significantly changing the books' content, they bring in a wealth of emotional tones--particularly a playful, wry humor.
  20. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    The black-and-white animation won't dazzle your eyes, but everything else about Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's adaptation of Satrapi's graphic comic book series Persepolis will hold you in its thrall.
  21. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    The French-language voice cast is first-rate, although the film will also be released in the U.S. in an English-language version featuring Sean Penn, Iggy Pop and Gena Rowlands in addition to Deneuve and Mastroianni.
  22. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    They're both tales of growing up in the shadow of Islamic fundamentalism, but Persepolis is everything "The Kite Runner" is not. It's a personal memoir rather than fiction, coolly observant instead of melodramatic, female rather than male in sensibility and sense of humor - it has a sense of humor.
  23. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    88
    Persepolis is as modern as tomorrow's headlines and as classic as an ancient myth.
  24. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    You can learn about the grand shifts of history from Persepolis, but you learn about a handful of lives as well.
  25. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rick Kisonak
    80
    The combination of pen, ink and geopolitical strife have yet to yield anything quite like it.
  26. Empire
    Reviewed by: Helen O'Hara
    80
    The monochrome animation is stark and beautiful, and Marjane's an appealing narrator. Often hilarious, sometimes tragic, this may be low-tech, but it's high-class.
  27. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    A familiar story set in an unfamiliar context, it's a paean to the universality of human experience, a testament to the endurance of individuality during great political and fanatical upheaval, and a reminder that even the most complex situations, identities and stories are heartbreakingly simple.
  28. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    The movie, while no fun, faces hard truths and asks hard questions.
  29. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    It is a vivid, at times heartbreaking, portrait of a life and a nation in crisis.
  30. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    It's striking how much emotion Satrapi is able to convey through blocky drawings.
  31. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    70
    There is no denying the boldness of Persepolis, both in design and in moral complaint, but there must surely be moments, in Marjane's life as in ours, that cry out for cross-hatching and the grown-up grayness of doubt.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 77 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 38
  3. Negative: 5 out of 38
  1. smijatov
    8
    Visually beautiful, especially with the use of the white and black, 'Persepolis' achieves what many animated films lately have lacked: to give us some actual knowledge about something happening in the world. As beautiful as 'Up' and 'Toy Story 3' may be, they do not teach us about the world things we haven't known before. 'Persepolis' gives us a tangible example of the diversity of cultures, ways of thinking and acting and how someone may be found to be living in the wrong place. I do not believe that this is an anti-Iranian film, after all, one of the "takeaway points" of the film is to be proud of who you are - which the director/author clearly is, and she makes it a point of pride. However, politics in Iran are definitely under attack here - but why not? Just because it is an animated film does not mean it cannot contain messages: clearly, what was happening in Iran at the time of the Islamic Revolution was not right, irrelevant of whether one believes it is 'anti-Iranian' to think that way or not. And, I think, most importantly, it shows to world-audiences (and especially US audiences) that Iran has also people who are like themselves, just that one cannot express it openly, and that Iran used to be quite a "normal" place before the revolution - not unlike Europe or anywhere else in the 'developed' world. Definitely, it is a highly recommendable film for its artistry and its heart-wrenching story.… Full Review »
  2. AndrewG
    10
    God, this film was funny.
  3. JakeH.
    10
    Absolute brilliance... Best animated film ever in FRENCH!!!!
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