Jean-Luc Godard’s sole foray science fiction drama stirs “1984” and “Brave New World” into a pulp fiction private eye thriller.

| Feb 8, 2025

Alphaville is Orwellian dystopia by way of Sam Spade sleuthing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 14, 2024

For all its influence, Alphaville still looks and feels like no other movie. More than a prophecy, it is poetry.

| Dec 18, 2023

A sci-fi noir maze...

| Sep 19, 2023

Visually stunning, but ultimately peculiar, Alphaville isn't a sci-fi you've seen. The deliberate attempts to unease, and extend our curiosity in a stylish display make this darkly enticing film stand out.

| Jul 8, 2022

Take(s) elements of classic Hollywood and twist(s) them into a haunting foreshadowing of the Godard to come.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 28, 2019

It really does feel like Godard has transported us to some other world, even if it's all a colossal put-on.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 12, 2019

...Godard is having a bit of a laugh...and if everything in this film is just too much of whatever it is, that's totally deliberate on his part.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 9, 2019

Godard whips this peculiar mélange of cinematic influences and invention into a work that is stimulating, stylish, and irresistible.

| Jan 22, 2019

Always something strangely individualistic, utterly contemporary, and yet for all that, riddled with dj vu, cultural echo chambers, a kind of deliberately outmoded sleight-of-hand.

| Mar 13, 2018

It's so archly intellectual that you fear it might splinter if you poke it in the ribs. It's also endlessly playful in its worship of American movie tropes, and deeply resourceful.

| Original Score: B | May 29, 2014

Both derivative and prophetic, this New Wave dystopian fable both looks back at the history of cinema and forward to its future. Hail, Lemmy Caution, father of Rick Deckard.

| Original Score: A | May 2, 2014

Nothing about this strange, moving work of agit-pop has ever seemed out of date. If anything, "Alphaville" moves closer to relevance with every passing year.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 1, 2014

A bracing salute to American gangster pics, with a jumpy European post-war uncertainty thrown in.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 25, 2014

Despite its age it's that rare science fiction film that doesn't seem to have dated at all.

| Apr 24, 2014

It's one of the great cinematic works of romanticism, as well as a sort of filmed revelation of the very essence of science-fiction movies and German silent classics -- their blend of social critique, emotional liberation, and paranoia.

| Apr 1, 2014

Science fiction meets film noir in a way that made possible the existence of Blade Runner, The Terminator and countless other books and films.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 1, 2014

Although this is drastically different compared to the rest of Godard's oeuvre, it has without a doubt had a lasting impact with its ground-breaking visuals.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 1, 2014

No movie, not even Breathless, better exemplifies the syncretic quality of Godard's early genius.

| Apr 1, 2014

One of [Godard's] most entertaining movies is also one of his most timeless.

| Apr 1, 2014