Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
66
(35 sources)
66
(35 sources)
-
100
Chicago Tribune
A landmark musical movie -- controversial, mercurial, even cheeky. It's the kind of film that wildly divides audiences and critics -- people tend to either love or hate it. I loved it. Read Full Review » -
90
Newsweek
Luhrmann has raised the level of his game, deconstructing the Hollywood musical -- a genre all but left for dead -- and reassembling it with a potency that hasn’t been seen since “Cabaret.” Read Full Review » -
90
Washington Post
It's a wonderful postmodern hug of a movie, and never once do you not know you're watching a movie. Read Full Review » -
90
New Times (L.A.)
This thing moves brilliantly, sparkling like nothing we've seen domestically since "The Wiz" or "Xanadu." Read Full Review » -
89
Austin Chronicle
A crazed, lovestruck, wholly original (and yet amazingly referential) beast, part pop-culture wasteland, part glowing tribute, and part wild-eyed roller coaster (of love). Read Full Review » -
88
New York Daily News
An audacious, snappy visual and emotional feast of dishes both familiar and fresh. It's the first really good movie of 2001. Read Full Review » -
88
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie is all color and music, sound and motion, kinetic energy, broad strokes, operatic excess. Read Full Review » -
80
Variety
A tour de force of artifice, a dazzling pastiche of musical and visual elements at the service of a blatantly artificial story. Read Full Review » -
80
Salon.com
It's a mishmash of decoration, drapery and debauchery that's both deeply pleasurable and kitschy. Read Full Review » -
80
-
80
Film Threat
What ultimately comes through is an undeniably imaginative work that is a glorious testament to the limitless and largely untapped possibilities of cinema. Read Full Review » -
75
-
75
-
75
San Francisco Chronicle
A movie so cheeky, aggressive and bursting with vitality that it can't help being annoying and exhilarating at the same time. Read Full Review » -
75
Miami Herald
It's impossible to watch this beautifully chaotic, excessive movie impassively. You'll either embrace what Luhrmann has done here or run out of the theater, holding your head. Read Full Review » -
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
You get faux feelings -- but faux of the highest, giddiest order. Read Full Review » -
70
Los Angeles Times
You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options. Read Full Review » -
70
-
70
-
70
Washington Post
McGregor, the movie's most engaging performer, is convincing enough to sell the mutual attraction. The "Trainspotting" star is usually playing some kind of freak, and this is a nice stretch for him. Read Full Review » -
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It doesn't, as they say, really work -- but it's enjoyable enough in spots to leave one feeling passably entertained. Read Full Review » -
67
Entertainment Weekly
The result is a musical that substitutes irony for pop passion, misanthropic disjointedness for lyrical flow. Read Full Review » -
60
Film.com
Consistently runs the danger of substituting cool but ultra-hyper, modern special effects for boring old human sentiment. Read Full Review » -
60
Mr. Showbiz
It's the kind of flourish that makes you smile -- that makes you believe in the power of movies. Read Full Review » -
60
-
60
Chicago Reader
Diverting, energetic, and even reasonably satisfying, so long as you aren't looking for a real musical to take its place. Read Full Review » -
50
-
50
Baltimore Sun
It wants to be like no other movie you've ever seen. It's more like every movie you've ever seen. Read Full Review » -
50
LA Weekly
Drowns in baroque mise en scène camp, frenetic musical numbers and a precious dialogue conceit that wears out its welcome very fast. Read Full Review » -
50
Boston Globe
The film musical is at the moment an even more devitalized art form than the Broadway musical. But Moulin Rouge doesn't revive it. It only rearranges the bones. Read Full Review » -
40
New York Magazine
It's like being trapped inside a fever dream of Oscar-night production numbers. Read Full Review » -
40
Village Voice
A voracious vacuum cleaner of a movie --hoovering up a hundred years' worth of junk with the same monotonously unmodulated hum. Read Full Review » -
38
USA Today
May be a spectacularly awful movie, but it's also spectacularly drenched in color, décor and other visual oh-la-la. Read Full Review » -
38
Charlotte Observer
The picture brims over with ideas - good ones, silly ones, maudlin ones, witty ones, absurd ones - and they bump up against each other like ingredients in a vast stewpot that never comes to a continuous boil. Read Full Review » -
30
Slate
Ends up leaving you starved for a single moment of unhyped emotion. You can barely see the characters for Luhrmann screaming. Read Full Review »
You Say
click on a star to rate
