Brand Upon the Brain! Critic Reviews

Metascore®:

76 =
Based upon 7 Critic Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times | Roger EbertAdd Critic to Favorites

It's an astonishing film: weird, obsessed, drawing on subterranean impulses, hypnotic.Read the full review

The New York Times | Manohla DargisAdd Critic to Favorites

Delirious, ingenious, often very funny and strangely touching film.Read the full review

Boston Globe | Ty BurrAdd Critic to Favorites

How often are psychosexual lunacy and classic cinema combined so fiendishly well?Read the full review

San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe SteinAdd Critic to Favorites

Wildly imaginative if extremely strange.Read the full review

The Onion (A.V. Club) | Scott TobiasAdd Critic to Favorites

Coming after the inspired trifecta of "Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary," "Cowards Bend The Knee," and "The Saddest Music In The World," Brand feels a little like boilerplate Maddin rather than a fresh burst of inspiration.Read the full review

The Hollywood Reporter | John DeForeAdd Critic to Favorites

Winnepeg filmmaker Guy Maddin isn't known for run-of-the-mill movies, but the feature he debuted at the Toronto Fest was outrageous even for him. A silent film taking the form of a twelve-chapter Feuillade-flavored serial and designed to have live accompaniment, the movie itself is a match for any of his features to date, and could outstrip earlier efforts in the arthouse arena.Read the full review

Variety | Scott FoundasAdd Critic to Favorites

Billed as a silent film, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain! is actually closer to a live theatrical event -- a feature-length motion picture screened with the accompaniment of a live orchestra, plus Foley artists, sound effects technicians and assorted vocalists, too. Together, they provide the elaborate soundscape for a typically frenetic, Maddin-esque amalgam of the autobiographical, Freudian and willfully absurd.Read the full review

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