The conflict between Guido’s discomfort for the nature of his fame and the driving force that led him there drives every interaction in the film.

| Jan 27, 2025

An ambitious, ambiguous, and experimental form of navel-gazing.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 5, 2025

This is the first (and, predictably, not the last) movie in which the director seems to be primarily interested in glorifying his self-imprisonment.

| Oct 18, 2023

Your favorite surrealistic movie owes much to 8 1/2, a formally daring study into the creation of art and how our worlds shape what we create.

| May 27, 2023

Federico Fellini’s tale of an artist in crisis is such a universal statement to everyone who creates as a living, it has to be a must-own (and must-watch) for everyone.

| Mar 8, 2023

It clearly is an exquisite film that truly feels like a work of art.

| Original Score: A | Aug 28, 2022

It could be said that the true beauty of “8 1/2” is found in its confusion. It’s found in the physical and psychological mayhem. It’s found in Fellini’s unique film language and audacious visual approach.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Of its importance there can be little question: it is a masterwork of one of the great filmmakers, his obviously definitive statement of creative doctrine. But it is an "in" movie, a strangely cold and uninvolving one for the nondevout.

| Aug 8, 2022

With every screening, you discover more layers and further understand the film's purpose, and its filmmaker.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 14, 2022

It remains dazzling and original, as ambitiously unfettered an exercise in navel- gazing as the movies have ever offered...

| Aug 30, 2021

It successfully portrays the passions, contradictions, and pressures of being an artist.

| May 21, 2021

Overall 8 1/2 is a strange film but I like it and what it has to say about inspiration and film. It was a challenging to movie to watch and keep everything straight but I like movies that challenge me and make me ask questions.

| Mar 24, 2021

No director has been as personal or vulnerable as Fellini is here-- he taps into his past, his dreams, his quirks, faults and failures, to find the meaning in the madness of life.

| Jan 10, 2021

Though he can't face up to the total case, we must be grateful to Fellini for having presented so much of it, and with such flair and exuberance.

| Feb 11, 2020

Made me prick up my eyes. After twenty minutes I began to suspect I might be in on a masterpiece, and after thirty I was sure of it.

| Aug 13, 2019

Maybe it is a film that will grown on me over time? I'm not sure but it didn't do much for me on this watch.... Still, it does look great so I will give it that.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 13, 2019

Fellini keeps a grasp on his difficult form, creating some penetrating, witty, tragic moments.

| Jun 26, 2018

8 1/2 is one of the great films about filmmaking.

| Dec 12, 2015

A carnival of the soul.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 1, 2015

Marcello Mastroianni becomes an avatar for the great Italian director Federico Fellini in the surreal cinematic self-interrogation that takes place in 8 1/2.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 30, 2015