75
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorPacifiction draws you in with its sense of mystery and surrealism and leaves you ultimately agog.
- 100The PlaylistMark AschThe PlaylistMark AschA gorgeous and grave anti-epic, Pacifiction proceeds in scenes that serve as pristine containers for Serra’s idiosyncratic style, slow and digressive, full of flabby jokes and windy talk. It’s like watching a tropical aquarium slowly fill with algae.
- 100IndieWireChristian BlauveltIndieWireChristian BlauveltPacifiction is not a vicarious experience of luxury; it is an experience of life. Set to its own tidal rhythm, it is one of the most beautiful and rigorously introspective movies of this or any year, a film that makes you deeply ponder the fate of humanity itself.
- 88Slant MagazineCarson LundSlant MagazineCarson LundPacifiction uses its thin narrative elements as a pretense to explore the texture of uncertainty, suspicion, and inaction.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawAlbert Serra’s bizarre epic is a cheese-dream of French imperial tristesse, political paranoia and an apocalyptic despair. It is a nightmare that moves as slowly and confidently as a somnambulist, and its pace, length, and Serra’s beautiful widescreen panoramic framings – in which conventional drama is almost camouflaged or lost – may divide opinion. I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottIt suggests John le Carré by way of David Lynch — a feverish and haunting but also wry and meditative rumination on power, secrecy and the color of clouds over water at sunset.
- 70Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallFor resilient audiences, it provides a truly original cinematic experience. ‘Cinematic’ is a key word: the film was lavishly shot using three 4K Canon Black Magic Pocket cameras and comes with a rich soundscape that pushes the oneiric envelope and takes certain scenes into paranoid-thriller genre territory.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinQuite watchable, even sort of plot-driven — for a Serra film.
- 50RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsRogerEbert.comSimon AbramsThis isn’t a story, but an evocative collection of asked-and-answered prompts. You buy a ticket to Pacifiction and then you react, until the nudging stops.