| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
This visually intricate fantasia combines his (Greenaway's) extraordinary cinematic imagination with a story and characters less compelling than those in his best works.
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| 75 |
Portland Oregonian
Never dull visually, but it's certainly monomaniacal and heartless thematically.
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| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
One possible approach to 8 1/2 Women, I think, is to view it as a slowed-down, mannered, tongue-in-cheek silent comedy, skewed by Greenaway's anger and desire to manipulate.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
A surreal comedy about sex that comes as close to charming as Greenaway ever gets.
|
| 70 |
Dallas Observer
It may be his (Greenaway's) breeziest and kindest-hearted effort to date.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Seethes with cruel lust and brainy fancy.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Marta Barber
With its convoluted pretentiousness, heavy use of metaphors and obscure references to art, fails to maintain interest.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
The problem with 8 1/2 Women isn't that what you see is what you get; it's that what you see is all you get.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
As powerfully as the film lingers in the mind, one can't help wishing he were led just a bit more by his heart.
|
| 50 |
Salon.com
Some viewers may find this movie sexist or misogynist simply based on its premise, but it's a mistake to take Greenaway's symbolic narratives too literally.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
A nod to Fellini--and that "half" turns out to be a typically dark Greenaway twist. Yet this film, one of Greenaway's most amusing and accessible, actually arrives at moments of tenderness, even love, fleeting though they may be.
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
Keeps teasing you with intimations of the libidinous animal within.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
Though his film is breathtakingly art-directed, Greenaway wallows in epater le bourgeois nastiness -- his inner naughty child could use a good paddling.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
Its message is quite simple and all too familiar: when it comes to sex, all men are little boys.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
(Greenaway) is often described as a director whose movies "are not for everyone." The obvious retort is that neither are the Three Stooges, but at least everyone understands them.
|
| 38 |
Baltimore Sun
Greenaway's film is about making people's jaws drop.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Examiner
It's downright boring.
|
| 25 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
8 1/2 Women is a collage-y, self-reflexive sort of film that is designed to shock but more often just annoys.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
Intentionally defies categorization and explication.
|
| 20 |
Chicago Reader
Writer-director Peter Greenaway never uses narrative lightly...references to the act of filmmaking exhaust their impact pretty quickly.
|
| 20 |
Film.com
This anti-narrative screwball comedy, a sort of police-drama re-enactment of Fellini's themes in "8 1/2," keeps most of the jokes off-screen.
|
| 16 |
Mr. Showbiz
Greenaway has hit a brick wall, and it's no fun to watch.
|
| 12 |
New York Post
More prettily photographed pretentious rubbish from the ridiculous Peter Greenaway.
|
| 10 |
Village Voice
The deeply ridiculous 8 1/2 Women could have been made only by a cranky dotard.
|
| 0 |
TNT RoughCut
Inert, unfunny, and not even interesting as a dirty movie, 8 1/2 Women could well rank as one of the worst films of the year.
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