All About Lily Chou-Chou

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Iwai's ambitious drama is strikingly shot, poignantly acted by a splendid young cast, and enriched by surprising use of Debussy classics on the soundtrack.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Gorgeously shot tableaux of random adolescent brutality are interrupted by flashes of computer garble and chat-room talk, backed by ''Lily's'' music, with its blend of Debussy-like arpeggios and Enya-like sighing.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

It's a uniquely lonely film, and one of the year's most memorable.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A sprawling and adventurous tale of teen alienation, might just be the movie that pushes the Japanese new wave out of the film-geek ghetto.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Awash in strangeness, a poem that details what it's like to be 13 at the end of a millennium.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Captures the pain and desperation of adolescent powerlessness and humiliation with powerful intimacy, strung out to almost 2 1/2 lazy hours of stories that wander through an ever-widening group of characters.

Variety Derek Elley

For all its digressions and occasional flat moments, Iwai's movie is a remarkable, acutely involving one, working on an emotional level that can only really be expressed through music -- a strong component in all of Iwai's pics.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Drifting through time and space without firmly situating the viewer, Iwai's elliptical style requires patience, but also a willingness to be carried along by its gorgeous, dreamy lyricism.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Continually jarring. Although the film's narrative thread may prove chronically elusive, Iwai's depiction of what life can be like for far too many teens comes across loud and clear.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

One of the most haunting, viciously honest coming-of-age films in recent memory.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Requires some patience. Once you get into its rhythm -- including the long flashbacks and intermittent use of the screen as an Internet chat room -- the movie becomes a heady experience.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Shunji Iwae's film began life as an interactive online "novel" and unfolds in a series of achronological vignettes whose cumulative effect is chilling.

New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein

There's an eerie coolness to this film that's quite unsettling and un-Oshima-like. Rather lengthy, it requires patience. But adventurous moviegoers aren't likely to mind.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Much of All About Lily Chou-Chou is mesmerizing: some of its plaintiveness could make you weep. If only Mr. Iwai trusted the material enough.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Although way too long at 146 minutes and extremely confusing in structure, the story of a lonely, picked-on eighth-grader (Hayato Ichihara) who finds refuge in the ethereal music of a Bjork-like pop singer packs a solid punch.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Kicks into high gear in its final 45 minutes, when the singer's fans descend on one of her concerts. It's worth the wait.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

So enigmatic, oblique and meandering that it's like coded religious texts that requires monks to decipher.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The concept was interesting and charming in "Love Letters," up to a point, but here it quickly becomes repetitive, obvious, and dull.