Dear Reader: Update, Movie Review Intelligence will
continue publishing this website through June (more...)
Search a Movie:
WILD GRASS (LES HERBES FOLLES)Movie Reviews
French language romantic drama about a man who becomes romantically obsessed with a woman after finding her lost wallet. Cast:Mathieu Amalric, Sabine Azéma, Anne Consigny, Emmanuelle Devos, André DussollierDirector:Alain ResnaisRelease Date:June 25, 2010DVD Release:November 16, 2010From:Sony ClassicsRating:PGLength:1 hr 44 min
NOVEMBER 16, 2010
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles), Very Good Reviews, Mixed Key Cities
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles) played in key cities to very good reviews that at the same time were mixed. • Michael Phillips wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "...pleasantly vexing... Each scene of plotting and counterplotting is acted with the highest style." • And Stephen Whitty wrote in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "...a work of playful vigor and youthful wit. Of often frustrating symbolism and willful obscurantism, too." More Reviews Below...
Richard Corliss, Time: OUTSTANDING "...delightful and subversive... a constant, confounding delight, and a nifty new trick from a grand old dog.... be on your guard -- your avant-garde..."(See all of Richard Corliss's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,036 words, 05/22/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: EXCELLENT(cg) "...explores notions of chance, routine, the presentation of self, and the odd stuff that can occur when a man meets a woman, at any age."(See all of Lisa Schwarzbaum's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 119 words, 06/25/10
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "The film is a visual pleasure, using elegant techniques that don't call flashy attention to themselves.... Here is a young man's film made with a lifetime of experience."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 667 words, 07/15/10
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: WEAK(cg) "...likely to draw a range of responses. Many will be transported by its gorgeous construction and breathless emotion. Others will find it patently ridiculous."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 180 words, 06/25/10
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD "...more a winsome reminder than a full realization of the cinematic poetry Resnais has made over the years with such films as 'Night and Fog' and 'Hiroshima My Love.' "(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 834 words, 07/02/10
V.A. Musetto, New York Post: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a French movie for people afraid of French movies.... Resnais shows he's a director who knows exactly what he wants, and gets it."(See all of V.A. Musetto's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 371 words, 06/25/10
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...pleasantly vexing... It is craftsmanship incarnate... Each scene of plotting and counterplotting is acted with the highest style."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 482 words, 07/16/10
John Anderson, New York Newsday: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Piquant, funny examination of fears and perceptions among a small group of very smart Parisians, for whom intelligence is no bar to insanity."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 338 words, 07/16/10
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "The film is a visual pleasure, using elegant techniques that don't call flashy attention to themselves.... Here is a young man's film made with a lifetime of experience."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 667 words, 07/15/10
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...insufferable... painfully unfunny... Irrationality rules right down to the elaborate series of Freudian puns that set up the self-congratulatory non sequitur ending."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 631 words, 06/23/10
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: VERY GOOD(cg) "Resnais seems content here to just play with two favorite actors (André Dussollier and Sabine Azéma) and to idly suggest what might have happened..."(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 723 words, 07/09/10
Jennie Punter, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "...comic-book hues, crime-caper score, overly serious narrator, interior monologues and surreal touches... proves Resnais is still having fun with cinematic language."(See all of Jennie Punter's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 448 words, 07/09/10
Radheyan Simonpillai, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...absurdist contemplations of dying time, elusive reality, strange memories and an even stranger present. It's a lot to digest... this is a minor work by a major auteur."(See all of Radheyan Simonpillai's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 172 words, 07/08/10
KEY CITIES (13 Reviews)
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: POOR(cg) "...might be the strangest film I've seen all year. Maybe all millennium.... I'm not saying that it would help to see it in an altered state, but it certainly couldn't hurt."(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 504 words, 07/23/10
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) "A bizarre, captivating story of stalking.... I walked out of the theater scratching my head. But while I watched I was caught up in this enigmatic fairy tale for adults."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 434 words, 07/09/10
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: POOR(cg) "...degenerates into nothing but a charmless set of self-conscious and empty gestures. It exhausts its welcome after 10 minutes and keeps exhausting it for 90 more."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 319 words, 07/30/10
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Logic-huggers won't like it, but I found 'Wild Grass' a prankish, lyrical and captivating experience.... abundantly silly theater of the absurd..."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 210 words, 07/16/10
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Director Alain Resnais, an elder statesman of French New Wave cinema, always has been interested in confounding convention..."(See all of Kerry Lengel's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 345 words, 07/30/10
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: MODERATE(cg) "...vaguely reminiscent of Luis Buñuel's last film, 'That Obscure Object of Desire,' but where that was a dry and wicked work, this just seems insufferably pleased with itself."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 494 words, 07/16/10
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...an engaging philosophical farce... embraces the intensity of subjective experience, the building of worlds around coincidence and passion."(See all of Tom Keogh's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 461 words, 07/23/10
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: VERY GOOD(cg) "...when a director of Resnais' pedigree and years brings so much life to the screen, inconsistency hardly seems to matter."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 158 words, 07/23/10
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: OUTSTANDING(cg) "At age 88, Resnais hasn't lost his capacity to confound, but his winds-of-fate romance 'Wild Grass' grows potent."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 328 words, 08/06/10
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a pleasure visually... I defy anyone to explain the film's closing scene to me -- or to argue that, however puzzling, it doesn't feel just right."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 368 words, 07/30/10
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (7 Reviews)
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...insufferable... painfully unfunny... Irrationality rules right down to the elaborate series of Freudian puns that set up the self-congratulatory non sequitur ending."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 631 words, 06/23/10
Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...only devotees will be thrilled... All the characters are mysterious, and all their motivations are incomprehensible... lovely to look at and strikingly edited."(See all of Gerald Peary's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 172 words, 07/15/10
Noel Murray, AV Club: EXCELLENT(cg) "...utterly bugnuts.... it's bound to put some viewers off, though it's also so bright and funny that it's hard not to be at least a little enchanted."(See all of Noel Murray's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 374 words, 06/24/10
Radheyan Simonpillai, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...absurdist contemplations of dying time, elusive reality, strange memories and an even stranger present. It's a lot to digest... this is a minor work by a major auteur."(See all of Radheyan Simonpillai's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 172 words, 07/08/10
Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: WEAK(cg) "It's as if everything about 'Wild Grass' wants to convince you that it has no consequence. If so, mission accomplished."(See all of Curt Holman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 533 words, 08/06/10
Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper: POOR "The final nail comes when the story goes from cutesy if disturbing to straight-up Dada. And how is this mess relevant to the title? Who the fuck cares."(See all of Tricia Olszewski's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 470 words, 07/22/10
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD "...more a winsome reminder than a full realization of the cinematic poetry Resnais has made over the years with such films as 'Night and Fog' and 'Hiroshima My Love.' "(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 834 words, 07/02/10
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Jordan Mintzer, Daily Variety: OUTSTANDING "...a playfully flamboyant melodrama... marked by superb performances and a dazzling technical display by Alain Resnais and praiseworthy cinematographer Eric Gautier."(See all of Jordan Mintzer's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 798 words, 05/20/09
Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter: FAIR "Visually scrumptious... [but] merely a compilation of eye-candy fluff. It distracts with its warm visuals, but never fully fleshes out."(See all of Duane Byrge's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 435 words, 05/20/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD "...more a winsome reminder than a full realization of the cinematic poetry Resnais has made over the years with such films as 'Night and Fog' and 'Hiroshima My Love.' "(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 834 words, 07/02/10
29.1 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles)'s reviews are separated by an average 29.1 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles) (35 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Wild Grass (Les herbes folles)'s reviews cover 49.1% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 16,153 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 462 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 90 Days Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles)'s reviews on average broke 90 days before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Wild Grass (Les herbes folles)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Wild Grass (Les herbes folles) (35 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
Mobile Web App version 1.2 shows a list of all current movies and review information. You can click through to the cast, director, synopsis, release date and rating on page two, plus individual reviews on page three. The information is updated on a live/real-time basis. You can also search our database of films. Designed for when you're on the move and want the latest info, this app will work on any mobile web browser. From your mobile device -- only from a mobile device -- open our Mobile Web App here...
