Popular reviews

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  Review by iana ★★★★½ 1

  lazzaro is described as a man with an “honest face”. his eyes are coloured by an innocence and naivite that’s rare because we can’t afford to be innocent. so when the first tear falls, your cheeks feel damp too – not even lazzaro can get by on kindness alone. under capitalism, selflessness is perceived as a threat. there is no place for honest faces here.

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  Review by IHE 12

  Weirdest Marvel Superhero origin yet.

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  Review by Sam Van Hallgren ★★★★ 4

  What is the role of a saint in a world that has turned its back on God in favor of capitalism? 

  Surreal and funny and aching, the movie makes a potent political point while conjuring a modern day myth out of faces, objects and gestures.

  Currently streaming on Netflix. Go and fall under this movie’s spell.

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  Review by Sean Baker 6

  Finally gave Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro a proper watch on Netflix. (Wish I was able to see on the big screen because Hélène Louvart’s Super 16 is lush) And it’s one of my faves of the year. What a fantastic follow-up to The Wonders.

  Arriflex 416, Zeiss Ultra Prime Lenses
  Laboratory - Augustus Color, Roma, Italy
  Super 16 mm (Kodak Vision3 250D 7207, Vision3 500T 7219)

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  Review by Evan T ★★★★★ 2

  Jesus Christ, literally. What a beautiful, biblical and symbolic piece of art this is. Forget Tenet for a second, it’s films like this which take the idea of studying time to new heights, A Ghost Story being the only thing in recent years to achieve the profoundly complex temporal magic to be seen here. Not only does this have one of the greatest ‘genre switches’ I’ve ever seen, it inherently defies every aspect of the word genre, which to me is always a positive. Alice Rohrwacher’s fantastic use of Super 16mm adds to the dimensionality of time, celluloid hairs and scratches always dancing at the edge of the frame, creating an organic sense of a documented past. I’ve never seen a film like this…

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  Review by Ella Kemp ★★★★

  I love: 
  - White sunlight with blackened edges 
  - Flip phones that only work when you extend the antenna
  - Howling until time stands still
  - Rocks that feel as foreign but look as beautiful as the moon
  - Profiteroles with chocolate and fresh cream
  - Dreams that come alive
  - The smell of a good man

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  Review by Sara Clements ★★★★★

  Lazzaro is the human version of Paddington and seeing them sad is the worst thing that has ever happened to cinema.

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  Review by Aaron Michael ★★★★ 2

  Full review on Lazzaro Felice here.
  

  Alice Rohrwacher is the real deal. This movie has it all and more. A profoundly moving, deeply inhabited film that soars as a portrayal of inequality and exploitation, friendship and selflessness. Lazzaro, as a character, is so impressively, unrelentling unselfish that he is essentially unfit for the world he lives in. Rohrwacher’s use of magical realism allows her to extend the “metaphor” that is Lazzaro beyond just the time he is born into, broadening - ever so lightly - the scope of this story. 

  I was particularly struck by the distinct change in visual style and aesthetic between the first and second hour. It helps deepen the story, serving as a showcase for Rohrwacher’s…

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  Review by Dan ★★★★½

  this world is evil and we don't deserve people like lazzaro...

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  Review by Laura ★★★★★

  i get emotional any time i try to wrap up this film in words. i look at lazzaro the way he looks towards the moon & speaks to it as a friend. it’s like he knows a secret – that you can whisper and still be heard. 
  whenever i see the moon now, i think of lazzaro. but it feels different to me. i feel like i’m always chasing the moon, looking for her, while she always chooses to follow lazzaro. just like the music, they trail behind him, watch over him, and shield him with their light.

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  Review by 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕞 (𝕃𝕖𝕠) 𝕧𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕖𝕣 ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕟 ★★★★★ 14

  Added to: 2018 Ranked, Leo's Top 200+ Favorites, Masterpieces of the 21st Century and 52 Films by Women - 2018

  Dreams to survive
  Dreams make a wish come true, ooh
  Keep your dreams alive
  Dream, dream on
  Your dream will come alive

  I’ve always considered the fable or parable to be one of the most precise and satisfactory forms of storytelling ever conceived. It aches close to being a fairytale but uses the essence of both forms to create something that’s wholly its own. Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice is such an ingenious little fable.

  Starting out somewhere in the '90s, we find ourselves in a small village, hidden from the rest of the world. It’s a minuscule…

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  Review by Lucy ★★½ 4

  AFI 2018: film #10

  “he’ll follow us, you’ll see”

  such a cute character, but otherwise, it wasn’t for me. too much and too little going on simultaneously