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

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

| Jun 26, 2018

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

It exerts an irresistible pull.

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

8 1/2 is probably the most potent movie about film-making, within which fantasy and reality are mixed without obfuscation, and there's a tough argument that belies Fellini's usual felicitous flaccidity.

| Jan 6, 2014

A sprawling anything-goes portrait of the artist and the creative process in crisis.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 6, 2014

In terms of execution I cannot remember a more brilliant film.

| Jan 6, 2014

There's no clean way to boil the characters of 8 1/2 down to their psychoanalytical essence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 13, 2010

Unless Fellini's problem has been preying on the mind of the viewer, he may not care to take on the director's doubts and confusions.

| Apr 27, 2009

It's Fellini's last black-and-white picture and conceivably the most gorgeous and inventive thing he ever did.

| Jul 9, 2007

Here is the author-director picture par excellence, an exciting, stimulating, monumental creation.

| Jul 9, 2007

Amiably spiking all criticism through a gloomy scriptwriter mouthpiece, Fellini pulls a multitude of rabbits out of the showman's hat.

| Jun 24, 2006

Fellini's flights into the surreal are his self-examination and confession. Alas, unlike Bergman, his confession is without moral rigor; he wants to be indulged, not absolved.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 22, 2004

Here is a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game.

| May 20, 2003

he effect is sometimes confusing -- but always beautiful -- and eventually intertwines to a singular life-confirming realisation that cuts through the madness and embraces it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 26, 2001

The ensuing decades have brought forth a deluge of bogus masterpieces, and Fellini's, by comparison, holds up rather well.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

[Fellini] is that rare sort of artist who can be loved, revered and just barely tolerated, all at the same time.

| Jan 1, 2000

Its opening [has] perhaps the greatest dream scene of all: Marcello Mastroianni's Guido stifled in a silent traffic jam, onlookers gazing blankly at him as he rises through the sunroof of his car, high into the sky. The rest of the film isn't too shabby.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

Somehow, the movie is more than the dated crisis of a naval-contemplating artist. It's about the inability in all of us to make sense of our lives, put it all together and come up with something meaningful.

| Jan 1, 2000