Metacritic Movie Ratings
Life During Wartime Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 90

  out of 100

  The New York TimesA.O. Scott

  It is all perfectly dreadful and at times appallingly funny. Mr. Solondz winds thin tendrils of narrative around the dinner-table conversations, and allows everyone a chance to be earnestly foolish, unguardedly selfish and also, almost by accident, cruelly honest.

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• 90

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey

  What Solondz does so well is create unthinkable moments in a "Leave It to Beaver" world, where unmentionables are aired in the most innocuous ways to startling effect. In Life During Wartime, he's done just that, creating a relationship agitprop that pops and sizzles; just be careful not to get burned.

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• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum

  In a staring contest with his audience, Solondz never blinks. He picks and picks at the themes that consume him, and he doesn't care who stays and who leaves. Me, I'm rapt.

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• 80

  out of 100

  VarietyTodd McCarthy

  In revisiting his darkly comic 1998 ensembler "Happiness," Todd Solondz may have made his best film with Life During Wartime.

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• 80

  out of 100

  Wall Street JournalJohn Anderson

  The common problem of Solondz's characters is an inability to see the world in shades of grey, which is fitting in a film where color-garish, boring or just plain ugly-is so important, and the actors are working off palettes of such extreme emotions. A few of them-notably Ms. Rampling, Mr. Hinds and Ms. Sheedy-are as good here as they've ever been.

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• 80

  out of 100

  The Hollywood Reporter

  A heady mix of deadpan humor that boldly uses such topics as pedophilia, race and terrorism to plead the need for forgiveness at a personal and national level.

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• 63

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  There's always rationing in wartime. What's rationed in Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime are feelings of hope, kindness and optimism.

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