Arcand’s intelligent, witty, delicate film is a constant joy and for once the academy got it right — this foreign language film richly deserved its Oscar.

| Jan 3, 2024

The film is deeply eclectic and confused, the characters largely unreal and caricatured. Arcand has the unfortunate inclination to be paradoxical rather than penetrating.

| Feb 16, 2021

[A] subtle and scrupulously intelligent film.

| Jan 30, 2020

It is a beauty. It blitzes all the phoniness, pretentiousness and political correctness around today, savages icons of popular and national culture, gives the finger to religious untouchables like Mother Theresa, and brought the house down.

| Jan 10, 2018

Arcand's own script is delightfully fluid, his direction poised.

| Jan 9, 2018

Despite an uneven cast, Arcand finds a tonal balance between sentimental and cynical that keeps the conversations real and heart wrenching.

| Mar 23, 2010

"The Barbarian Invasions" is an intriguing meditation on the inevitable fall of ideologies under the pressure of nature's laws.

| Original Score: B | May 4, 2009

Humour, whether darkly observant or skilfully witty, twines through the film like a confidently creeping ivy, growing out of the characters quite naturally.

| Oct 18, 2008

The film may be more of a sad commentary on the human condition than traditionally sad in the manner Arcand intended.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2008

A full-bodied, funny and gloriously unpretentious ode to family, friendship and the meaning of life.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2008

So many fascinating ideas are raised here that Arcand's decision to explore them within the context of a self-satisfied soap is disappointing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Both the comedy and the weepy moments tend towards the trite, but the film is directed and performed with such brio and manipulative skill that one eventually succumbs to its somewhat dubious charms.

| Jan 26, 2006

The film's emotional ending is deeply felt and powerful, examining the pain and the humor of life without pathos or melodrama. As such, the film resonates and lingers.

| Original Score: A | Nov 18, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 5, 2005

...an almost documentary truth to the performances, a un-movieish consistency of tone that makes it easy to forget that we're watching actors.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jan 7, 2005

...jerkily paced, dramatically obvious, and seems penned by a self-serious 16-year-old

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 30, 2004

The occasion is death, but the movie is a joyous celebration of life.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 15, 2004

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 9, 2004

You get to experience the sentiment without drowning in it; and you get a sharp-edged ideological exploration of living (and dying) in modern times.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 9, 2004

Its most poignant observation is that these barbarians, being our own sons and daughters, are already well within the gates

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 12, 2004