| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
For those under the impression that Icelandic life consists solely of fishing and the hosting of international summits, this triangle of love, lust, and misunderstanding from director Baltasar Kormakur is a welcome treat.
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| 80 |
Variety
A funny, touching, off-the-wall relationer that's one of the freshest helming debuts in world cinema this year.
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| 80 |
LA Weekly
First-time director Baltasar Kormakur -- balances tones with a smooth, mature confidence.
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| 80 |
Mr. Showbiz
In spirit, 101 Reykjavík is so Almodóvar that it could melt the polar icecap.
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| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Lola is played by veteran Spanish actress Victoria Abril, one of Pedro Almodovar's favorites, and though the character sounds familiar, Abril brings so much zest and enthusiasm to its creation that it feels original and makes the passion she inspires believable.
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| 75 |
New York Post
Accurately described as an Icelandic version of Pedro Almodovar's gender-bending black comedies -- but it's also reminiscent of early Woody Allen movies.
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| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
A wonderful, cockeyed sex comedy.
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| 70 |
New Times (L.A.)
While 101 Reykjavik has already been compared to "High Fidelity," with which it shares the notion of an emotionally immature male narrating a tale of his own failings, it's probably closer to something like "Spanking the Monkey," which took the Oedipal angle even further.
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| 70 |
The New York Times
Feels as though it is not about much, but it is so well acted that the lassitude becomes a part of the atmosphere.
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| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
The tone of the film is in keeping with its most resounding image: Hilynur lying in the snow with a cigarette dangling from his mouth as the suicide note on his chest blows away in the wind as he wakes up.
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| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Fun to watch it may be, but it's shallow fun. Like the drugs and booze the characters keep using -- and even the sex -- it's a passing pleasure.
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| 63 |
New York Daily News
Much of this is pretty funny, in its perverse, disorienting style, and there's an irrepressible sunniness to the relationship between Lola and Hlynur's mother.
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| 60 |
Village Voice
Kormakur's debut feature fulfills the basic requirements of good slacker comedy: It's grounded in quotidian tedium and frustration, and it acknowledges both the humor and pathos of the relevant coping mechanisms (here, lackadaisical flings, porn addiction, amnesia-courting binges).
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| 50 |
TV Guide
Characters find themselves in absurdly complicated situations, but respond with sardonic cool rather than hot-blooded hysteria.
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| 42 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
But the main reason you might find the film a bad trip is that its 30-year-old Holden Caulfield-type hero is so harrowingly unsympathetic: unpleasant, unappealing, self-pitying.
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