Lunacy

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

One of the best films of the year.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade (interesting combination, no?).

TV Guide Ken Fox

Svankmajer has crafted his finest live-action feature to date.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Svankmajer's nihilistic story isn't for everyone, but he skillfully manages its disturbing execution in ways no one else could, and he brings it across in a darkly comedic way that encourages simultaneous laughter, horror, and thought. If that isn't art, what is?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The film is imaginative but ugly, with bodily functions an unending source for grotesque and revolting imagery.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

It's a fully formed film which transcends polemic by an intelligent use of the imagination.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Its view of mankind is unkind, to say the least, but any race that can produce such remarkably garish gore as this is perhaps salvageable somehow, someday.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

While Lunacy leaves you with the impression that Svankmajer is more expressive with cutlets than he is with his atypically human-dominated dreamscape, some of the images are doozies.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

At nearly two hours Lunacy becomes repetitive, at first ingeniously and then with a slowly dulling edge. The meat parade ceases to shock.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

For all its visual surprises and visceral shocks, Lunacy is still the kind of film that is easier to admire than it is to actually like.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

While dinner and a movie is in theory a great idea, I'd avoid eating before taking in Lunacy.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Lunacy feels programmatic, the repetitive working through of an idea that had me checking my watch.

Variety Jay Weissberg

More moving animal parts and less human pontificating would make a stronger case for a tale already rich in imagery. Another drawback is Liska, too one-dimensional to stand against Triska's overpowering performance.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Svankmajer’s provocations skew toward the intellectual and the shivery rather than the pop and the visceral, and at his best, he doesn’t just get under your skin, but also deep in your head, too. Here, unfortunately, he does neither, despite some marvelous stop-motion animated sequences involving a literal moveable feast of severed animal tongues, loose eyeballs and errant brains.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Lunacy is dark, scary, and yucky--even by the Czech animator's own standards.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Weird anachronisms (cars, telephones, home computers) contribute to the craziness, but despite the copious imagination on display, this is a fairly long haul.