Clouds of Sils Maria
IFC Films | Release Date: April 10, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 29, 2015
Although there are shades of "All About Eve" here, the resonances lean more toward the fluid identities of the actresses in Ingmar Bergman’s work or even Assayas’ own "Irma Vep." Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 16, 2015
A meditation on fame, acting, aging, and acceptance, “Clouds” is a multilayered rapture on the subject of woman, performing. Not only does the film demand repeat viewings, it rewards them. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 28, 2015
Everything about this film, from the title to the metaphors, remains cloudy. And you can watch clouds only so long before you realize they don’t have any weight at all. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 16, 2015
Clouds of Sils Maria is an expertly filmed insider’s look at the film business, the trappings of fame and the unstoppable, sometimes bone-chilling march of time. It’s complex and wickedly funny and dark, and it features the best ensemble acting of any film I’ve seen so far this year. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 16, 2015
By design, the dialogue from the (fictional) play comments directly on the central, shifting power relationship in the film, sometimes elegantly, sometimes a little awkwardly. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 10, 2015
This is one of the few films that captures the complex intensity of the diva/personal assistant dynamic. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 25, 2014
Both actresses are excellent, with Binoche given more to do and she flips between attempting to get into the skin of her character and back to her normal self. Stewart, on the other hand, has an easy naturalism as she moves from devotion to rebellion without ever being able to fully express herself. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerMay 12, 2015
It gives artistic types an easy ride but it’s a feast of rich writing and great acting. And if you’ve only ever seen Kristen Stewart in Twilight movies, she is in a different class here. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 9, 2015
If Ingmar Bergman had directed a remake of "All About Eve," it might have looked something like Clouds of Sils Maria. Mysterious and narratively playful, Olivier Assayas’ film features a trio of finely calibrated female performances that examine the psychological toll of being an actress — or working for one. Read full review
67
HitfixGuy LodgeMay 25, 2014
Poised between melodrama and chamber piece, then, Clouds of Sils Maria is either too silly or not silly enough. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMay 25, 2014
The typically great Binoche conveys a tantalizing mixture of confidence and unease as she considers her glamorous past and undetermined future. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 9, 2015
Stewart does exactly what Valentine describes as Jo-Ann's great gift — she becomes the character, completing disappearing inside Valentine. It makes the interplay between Binoche, a master of that sort of disappearing act as well, and Stewart mesmerizing to watch. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 9, 2015
This is the film that fulfills whatever promise Kristen Stewart has shown for more than a decade. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 9, 2015
Assayas’s pace is easy, his structure linear: no tricky flashbacks, no jagged cuts. There’s so little in the way of histrionics that it’s hard to put one’s finger on why the film is so terrifically intense — except that each actress is, in her own peculiar way, preternaturally high-strung, able to convey momentous emotional stakes without raising her voice above the pitch of conversation. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithApr 8, 2015
A backstage drama that has all the sizzle of a glass of water resting on the windowsill, Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria mistakes lack of dramatic imagination for smoldering subtlety. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedApr 8, 2015
The movie moves as slowly as the oncoming fog, but Juliette Binoche is always a pleasure to watch, despite an awkward coda set in London that I found jarring. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 17, 2015
Hugely affecting - and reflective and witty. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerMay 14, 2015
The easy chemistry between Binoche and Stewart is reason enough to see Clouds of Sils Maria. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 20, 2015
In the end, there's a sense that director Olivier Assayas is more concerned about making a point than telling a story. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 10, 2015
Clouds of Sils Maria is oodles more poetic and enigmatic than the term “backstage drama” generally encompasses. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 9, 2015
Recalling the best movies about actors, from "All About Eve" to "Birdman," Clouds of Sils Maria is a bonbon spiked with wit and malice. It's also a penetrating look into the female psyche, a specialty of critic-turned-filmmaker Olivier Assayas, who wrote Juliette Binoche her first starring role, as a young actress in 1985's "Rendez-vous." Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 10, 2015
Kristen Stewart doesn’t screw it up. She’s in on the joke, but she never plays Valentine as a joke. She’s alive and alert and present in every second of screen time, alongside one of the greatest living European actresses, working not for herself but for the benefit of a strange, imperfect and sometimes brilliant film. There’s nothing more you can ask. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 16, 2015
It’s not a combination most of us would’ve thought of, but Stewart and Binoche bring out the best in each other. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneSep 1, 2014
The pleasure in watching the film becomes a linguistic one as Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart masterfully sharpen their words and hurl them at each other like projectiles out of a blowpipe. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonApr 30, 2015
Brilliant performances aside, Clouds of Sils Maria is overlong and much too self-indulgently an “art film.” It might have benefited from being just a bit more grounded. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 20, 2015
For those viewers who've watched Stewart's recent progression in offbeat films like Camp X-Ray and Still Alice — when she held her own opposite Academy Award winner Julianne Moore — it shouldn't be a surprise. Clouds of Sils Maria matches Stewart with another Oscar honoree, Juliette Binoche, with equally impressive results. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 8, 2015
Binoche and Stewart inhabit their characters’ complicated friendship, whether they’re doing the nuts-and-bolts, behind-the-scenes business of managing a career or getting drunk at a small casino. Read full review
90
The DissolveScott TobiasApr 7, 2015
Clouds Of Sils Maria is a great midlife crisis film, in other words, and, like Irma Vep, it’s also a great meta-commentary on contemporary moviemaking, with Assayas making keen observations about modern celebrity, screen-devouring blockbusters, Internet gossip culture, and the next generation of actresses, represented here by Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2014
If Assayas's film finally falls just shy of being great art itself, it is at least handsomely staged and played with conviction. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 25, 2014
Binoche and Stewart seem so natural and life-like that it would be tempting to suggest that they are playing characters very close to themselves. But this would also be denigrating and condescending, as if to suggest that they’re not really acting at all. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 9, 2015
The three women in Clouds of Sils Maria love, talk and move, move, move, sharing lives, trading roles and performing parts. The lives they lead are messy and indeterminate, but each woman’s life belongs to her. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 13, 2015
In one respect, though not a major one, it is a masterpiece: seldom will you find a better class of fadeout. Read full review
50
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 25, 2014
At best a handful of transitory pleasures, Sils Maria threads through the peaks and valleys of weighty, interesting topics, but makes no lasting impression on them. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 25, 2014
This is a complex, bewitching and melancholy drama, another fearlessly intelligent film from Assayas. Read full review
91
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeApr 14, 2015
Assayas clearly loves actresses — their spontaneity and their self-doubt, and the mercurial way they can switch from one to the other — and Clouds of Sils Maria offers both a compassionate exploration of their lives and a powerful showcase for three of them to do some of their best work to date. Read full review
100
Time OutDavid EhrlichApr 8, 2015
It’s a sexy concept that will thrill Assayas neophytes, but the director’s longtime fans will find its pleasures virtually pornographic. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramMay 12, 2015
Not the promised insider’s peek but Assayas and Binoche are still a potent combo, nailing the fragility of an actress facing the ageing process. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 25, 2014
Binoche leaves audiences with the same exhilarating feeling here — of having witnessed something precious and rare — answering the challenge of Assayas’ script by revealing a character incredibly closer to her soul. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 7, 2015
The movie's true center, the meteorological phenomenon that makes it so pleasurable to watch, is the half-prickly, half-affectionate interplay between Binoche and Stewart. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 9, 2015
Clouds Of Sils Maria. swirls with provocative ideas, but they’re talked about more than dramatized Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 17, 2015
Olivier Assayas’s drama is intriguingly ambiguous and strangely constructed, and there seems to be symbolism lurking in every shot. Yet, despite acting that dazzles and no shortage of artistry, the movie is more fun to ponder than to sit through. Read full review
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