8 femmes 2002

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Even if some of the references are inscrutable, a lot of 8 Women is a riot. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: For French film fans, this is the equivalent of Bob Dylan, the surviving Beatles and the Rolling Stones jamming in the studio with an adoring producer behind the glass. Read more

Loren King, Chicago Tribune: An ebullient toast to grande dames: part homage, part camp, all artifice and a thoroughly entertaining, if light, confection. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Although it starts off vaguely amusing, 8 Women grows progressively sour, curdled by the filmmakers' bad faith and lack of compassion. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: For pure camp, intentional or otherwise, this is right up there with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: 8 Women may not plumb the depths of the female psyche, but it's stylish and frivolous in the most profound ways. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a big puffy French pastry of a movie: light, airy, silly, not especially memorable, but delicious while it lasts. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Seduction is more important than deduction in this chic display of star quality to the eighth power. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Visually, it adores the women it introduces. Emotionally and intellectually, it mocks them. Read more

Jonathan Foreman, New York Post: Inept, tedious kitsch that even at its best feels like John Waters minus the joie de vivre. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Simply to name the eight actresses ... is to indulge in an iconic incantation that has less to do with traditional film criticism than with spiritual speculation on the eloquent intimations of immortality in the ageless cinema of faces. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The cast is the main attraction in Francois Ozon's witty, even touching 8 Women. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: A note of genuine sadness sneaks through at the end, but for the most part, enjoying 8 Women involves coming to terms with its artificiality and learning to appreciate it from a distance. Behind all that thick glass, it's still a work of art. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The French screen royalty assembled by Ozon and the film's sheer exuberance in its own artifice make this a delight from beginning to end. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: The acting is such a delight, with each actress nailing her respective personality type with appropriate flair and finesse, that it breathes with life. Read more

Sheila Norman-Culp, Associated Press: A delectable, frothy, often over-the-top 1950s murder mystery by director Francois Ozon. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Weightless entertainment that's both camp and true. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: It's more of a graduate seminar kind of fun than a Singin' in the Rain kind of fun. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The sum of the movie's parts amounts to a starstruck director entertaining himself more than he entertains us. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Who did it is less important to Ozon than a lampooning of the Sirkian aesthetic of pure artifice, but there's too much irony in the air for him to spin anything but the most brittle of confections. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Ozon plainly worships the idea of the grand dame, and the movie allows him both to honor and deride his own devotion. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The writing is very clever and it is a hoot watching the celebrated cast ham it up. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Indefensible, cynical, even grotesque; it is also pure -- that is to say innocent and uncorrupted -- fun. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Offers as much delicious enjoyment to the viewer as it obviously did to the cast and crew when they were assembling it. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Watching 8 Women, you have a silly grin half of the time. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Whatever you call this one-of-a-kind bonbon spiked with wit and malice, it's classic oo-la-la. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Under the pretense of casting a spell of wonder, mystery, joy and despair, all Ozon has really done is set up a dry, lifeless environment in which ironic detachment -- the arch-enemy of all great art -- can flourish like a stingy cactus. Read more

Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle: A movie that is so original, so funny, so alive with drama, intrigue, mystery and colors that you want to see it again and again. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Its silly, mannered contrivances nonetheless cast a nostalgic spell, and you find yourself drawn helplessly into the loopy, nonsensical story with strangely fretful anticipation. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's quite the fun group to be stranded with -- unless you happen to be male, rich and in the way. Read more

Tony Rayns, Time Out: This is a style of camp so broad that even the most bovine straight can get it. Read more

Lisa Nesselson, Variety: Ozon's notion of derision is perfectly carried out by his multi-generational name cast. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: For all the tumultuous entrances and flouncing exits, the eight principals manage maybe three laughs among them. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Yes, it's over the top, giddy and parodistic (God bless it). But it also takes a thoughtful, if surreptitious, look at what eight women might act like when men aren't around. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A gorgeous, if disjointed, spectacle, made endurable -- if not entirely comprehensible -- by its eye-popping cast. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: It is our awareness that five of the brightest French stars have come together to have fun that makes the picture bubble. Read more