Songs from the Second Floor

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A collision at the intersection of farce and tragedy--the apocalypse as a joke on us.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Want to see something strange, funny, twisted, brilliant and macabre? Sure you do.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

A brilliant, absurd collection of vignettes that, in their own idiosyncratic way, sum up the strange horror of life in the new millennium.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

"Songs" is a delight. It's a visual feast and often hilarious.

TV Guide Ken Fox

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.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A heartbreakingly thoughtful minor classic, the work of a genuine and singular artist.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Often seems more old-fashioned than modern.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

A devastating indictment of unbridled greed and materalism, made all the more relevant by the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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.

Variety Derek Elley

Rapidly wears out its welcome after the first few reels to finish up as a perplexing objet d'art.