Underground 1995

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Kusturica takes us from wacky farce to harrowing grief to lyrical fantasy to bloody horror. To ignore any side of Underground is to do it injustice. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: A sprawling, rowdy, vital film laced with both outrageous absurdist dark humor and unspeakable pain, suffering and injustice. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A rich, vibrant, visually spectacular survey of the changes the place has gone through during the past 50 years. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Feverish, whimsical allegory elevated by moments of brilliant clarity. Read more

Joshua Klein, AV Club: Underground is a bizarre, often repellent anti-war parable that takes forever to state the obvious but hits some scattered high notes on the way. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: A triumph of mise en scene mated to a comic vision that keeps topping its own hyperbole. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Daily News: Delirious in its excess, but never less than ferociously intelligent and operatically emotional, Underground represents one of those rare, exhilarating moments when an outsize artistic vision is fueled by an apparently unlimited budget. Not to be missed. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: There's no denying Kusturica's technical virtuosity as he mounts one hectic, large-scale set-piece after another, but in the end it's hard to fathom the exact purpose of this epic allegory. Read more

Deborah Young, Variety: Emir Kusturica's epic black comedy about Yugoslavia from 1941 to 1992 is a three-hour steamroller circus that leaves the viewer dazed and exhausted, but mightily impressed. Read more