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Songs from the Second Floor
Metascore
74 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 2 out of 14
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    A collision at the intersection of farce and tragedy--the apocalypse as a joke on us.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    In place of a conventional plot, this utterly unique Swedish movie offers a series of related episodes -- Some are funny, some are tragic, all are dreamlike and unpredictable, suggesting that the 21st century will be a lot weirder and wackier than we expect.
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    90
    Want to see something strange, funny, twisted, brilliant and macabre? Sure you do.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    88
    A brilliant, absurd collection of vignettes that, in their own idiosyncratic way, sum up the strange horror of life in the new millennium.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    "Songs" is a delight. It's a visual feast and often hilarious.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    Andersson creates a world that's at once surreal and disturbingly familiar; absurd, yet tremendously sad. The haunting score is by ABBA's Benny Andersson.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    80
    A heartbreakingly thoughtful minor classic, the work of a genuine and singular artist.
  8. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    80
    Often seems more old-fashioned than modern.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    A devastating indictment of unbridled greed and materalism, made all the more relevant by the Enron and WorldCom scandals.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    The film is depressive, slow, darkly funny, unyielding in its formal rigor, and unsettlingly beautiful. It's obviously not for everyone, but only because not everyone can meet its stare.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    75
    The film is like an Ingmar Bergman movie as realized by Monty Python: It's seriously gloomy about the loss of spirituality in the world, but at the same time rudely, sometimes hilariously, absurd.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    Though the laughs in Songs From The Second Floor tend to stick in the throat, they're also cathartic and oddly comforting, because the world outside the movie theater is bound to look cheerier than the one on the screen.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    30
    Despite some deadpan, Jacques Tati-like orchestration and occasional sight gags, there's no real pleasure in the game -- Songs From the Second Floor is more absurd than funny.
  14. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    30
    Rapidly wears out its welcome after the first few reels to finish up as a perplexing objet d'art.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
  1. JoeT
    10
    Spookily brilliant. An odd, sad satire composed of several surreal vignettes, shot with a static camera. Roy Andersson, the director, imbues the film with a ludicrous, unique sense of dark humor. His early career was spent directing TV commercials, and here he lampoons consumerism with a bleak vengeance. I read somewhere (wish I could remember) a description of his lastest film, You, The Living, as a combination of the Far Side and a Luis Bunuel film. That's a perfect description for a perfect film.… Full Review »
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