Reality 2012

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: As cautionary tales go, this one's ripely knowing, and it speaks in a lot more languages than Italian. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [Arena's] feverish urgency matches his character's, right up through the movie's dreamlike final scene ... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Mr. Garrone offers a glimpse not only of one man, but also of the soul of a people. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: For all its ups and downs and occasional detours into boorishness, it's an original that will surprise if not necessarily delight fans of Garrone's very different crime drama, "Gomorrah." Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: If Luis Bunuel were alive today, this is roughly what I'd expect him to be up to. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: While its barbs on celebrity and reality television are expected and a little facile, they're mostly a misdirect for a story about family, community, and religion ... Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Matteo Garrone follows his crime epic Gomorrah with a comedy about reality TV, and though it hardly rivals the earlier movie in its social complexity, it still offers the spectacle of a vibrant and vividly realized Neapolitan neighborhood. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Garrone doesn't make the mistake of turning his protagonist, Luciano (Aniello Arena), into a bland Everyman. He never loses his singularity. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: It's clear that Garrone is lamenting the death of culture. But the movie is more compassionate than screed-y. It's a portrait of the preoccupation with fame in an age in which in fame is cheap. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: A disappointingly obvious follow-up to [Garrone's] unsparing criminal drama Gomorra... Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: [An] astute, dreamlike gut-punch ... Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: Garrone has a feeling for sweep and color, and he makes Luciano a pathetic victim of the unrealities with which TV can beset us. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The opening shot guides us into the absurd merriment of a wedding party, while the ending is lit with a mystifying sense of wonder. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Four years after astounding audiences with his starkly grim mob tale "Gomorrah," Matteo Garrone returns with a more garish, and superficial, vision of Italian culture. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: The bright palette of "Reality" is an obvious way to underline the hero's unraveling, but it looks good, and it works. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A dark allegorical comedy about the nature of fame, about obsession, about madness - and the point where they converge: on Big Brother, a TV show watched by millions. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is a movie that will reward multiple viewings, from a filmmaker of tremendous technical ability, humor and heart. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Garrone just about keeps things under control long enough to make the surprisingly quiet coda emotionally satisfying and resonant. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: What Reality loses in satirical momentum as it slouches through its second half, it gains in substance by positioning celebrity as the new cracked sainthood. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Garrone is in complete control of his thematic plutonium. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The satire here is finespun, and the film's conclusions ambiguous. Read more