Midnight in Paris 2011

Tom Long, Detroit News: Midnight in Paris is a loving embrace of the city, of art and of life itself. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Rather surprisingly... Midnight is an absolutely terrific film, fleet and brisk and as charming as it wants to be. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It is marvelously romantic, even though - or precisely because - it acknowledges the disappointment that shadows every genuine expression of romanticism. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: This is prime Woody Allen -- insightful, philosophical and very funny. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: This supernatural comedy isn't just Allen's best film in more than a decade; it's the only one that manages to rise above its tidy parable structure and be easy, graceful, and glancingly funny, as if buoyed by its befuddled hero's enchantment. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: In Woody Allen's beguiling and then bedazzling new comedy, nostalgia isn't at all what it used to be -- it's smarter, sweeter, fizzier and ever so much funnier. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It makes us happily remember the movies we thought Allen wasn't able to make anymore, even while the filmmaker reaches into the past to add one more great one to the list. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Pure Woody Allen. Which is not to say great or even good Woody, but a distillation of the filmmaker's passions and crotchets, and of his tendency to pass draconian judgment on characters the audience is not supposed to like. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Entertaining enough, but unmistakably the work of a later, lesser era. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: A delicious trifle for anyone who has ever dreamt of bantering about the cinema with Luis Bunuel or lounging at the piano to hear Cole Porter sing "Let's Do It." Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Woody Allen has found the right time and the right place with "Midnight in Paris," his lightest, funniest and most-satisfying movie in a long time. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A sweet-natured trifle, as flavorful and as thin as a crepe. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I find this upfront fantasy to be his funniest, most agreeable comedy in years. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: While Allen may not be reinventing any wheels, he still has it. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Sweet, not altogether satisfying variation on the fantasy-becomes-reality conceit he used in his Depression-era The Purple Rose of Cairo. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Woody Allen's beleaguered heroes have never been reluctant to indulge in a little fantasy to get what they want. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Midnight in Paris is charming and clever, at times wickedly astute and hopeful. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Having sampled London and Barcelona in recent films, Woody Allen continues his grand tour of European cities with Midnight in Paris, an ingratiating, tourist-oriented exercise in nostalgia for a city that doesn't exist. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Sweet, sentimental, and vibrant, Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" rightfully points out that yesterday's frolicking bar might be today's laundry mat ... but we can always visit the good times in our memories. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Woody's in good form and Paris looks glorious in this droll time-traveling fantasy. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write again: Woody Allen has made a wonderful new picture, "Midnight in Paris," and it's his best, most enjoyable work in years. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Midnight in Paris is a terrific picture -- an appealing, bubbly, intelligent fantasy made by a director in an unusually playful mood. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: As a conceit, the visit with literary celebrities may be thin, and the episodes are brief and sketchy, but wish fulfillment is part of the movie's charm. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Allen's new "Midnight in Paris" is a lot like his earlier, funnier movies. And it's far and away his sunniest effort since "Mighty Aphrodite." Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: A sweet and lively story, and a nicely packaged new outing from a past master who has done little more than repeat himself for at least two decades. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The idea has likely been in Allen's head since forever, but it's arrived at the right moment. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Though it never ventures past the tourist quarters of Paris, this is one of Woody's most handsomely photographed movies. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: In a film so ripe with temptations for posturing, exaggeration and satirical overacting, nobody is anything less than natural, unpretentious and funny as hell. Read more

Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Inquirer: There is breezy comedy to be made of a YouTube-age writer meeting the icons and idols of a bygone, classical era, but Allen goes deeper, expanding on his time-travel device to make unexpected and unexpectedly generous observations. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: What's Wilson doing in a Woody Allen movie about a B-list screenwriter who time-travels from the present to the Jazz Age? Disarming the audience with his wistful joie de vivre, that's what. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's an entertaining trifle that is at least as engaging as, and perhaps more likeable than, a majority of the filmmaker's recent excursions. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Smart, funny, whimsical--one of the best romantic comedies in recent years. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Woody Allen must have had a great time writing this screenplay. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: As a filmmaker, Allen has grappled with the temptations of repeating himself instead of forging a fresh path. You can feel that conflict here, and watching him work it out is exhilarating. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Allen seems to be paying attention in a way he hasn't always done in recent films, and has found a way to channel his often-caustic misanthropy, half-comic fear of death and anti-American bitterness into agreeable comic whimsy. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A movie that's loving and wistful and often hysterically funny. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: A huge part of the charm of Midnight in Paris derives from the finely calibrated casting, long one of Allen's superpowers as a director. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Midnight in Paris" makes you yearn for the time when brainy larks weren't a once-a-year occasion. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Midnight in Paris" is a bonbon to ease the craving for Allen's earlier, funnier films. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Our hero has found his groove among the Lost Generation and, for us, there's some amusement to be had in sharing Gil's thrills -- it's like stepping into a Classic Comics version of A Moveable Feast. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's fun and it's most welcome. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: Woody Allen attracts promising players and does nothing with them. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It succeeds because Allen's muse is completely activated, unlike last year's time-waster You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, in which thought ran no deeper than the title joke. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Midnight in Paris is as light as a souffle, and almost as sweet. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Like a swoony lost chapter from Paris, je t'aime agreeably extended to feature length. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: A deceptively light time-travel romance, Midnight in Paris uses fairy-tale devices as a way to get to the filmmaker's familiar, real-life-sourced themes. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Midnight in Paris" finds Allen in a larky, slightly tart and altogether bountiful mood, giving filmgoers a movie that, while unabashedly funny and playful, provides a profiterole or two for thought. Read more