a favorite. I love this movie

| Apr 7, 2025

It’s a bold, fascinating concept that feels true to the heart of someone like Brooks, a man who has made neuroses an integral part of his artistic brand.

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Mar 25, 2024

There are also elements of courtroom drama without otherworldly components or CGI effects. If released 80 years ago, “Defending Your Life” could have easily been a Frank Capra film, likely a companion piece to “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 4, 2023

Brooks manages to wring some laughs out of admittedly banal material, and the film is socially on target in some of its satire. The casting is very fine. Meryl Streep brings humor and flashes of authentic feeling to her role.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 9, 2023

Defending Your Life is about handling our fears and being able to live life as it was intended to be.

| Mar 6, 2023

As much as I like this film, I can understand those who cannot be taken away by its ironic fantasy, will hate it to death; from beginning to end. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jan 21, 2023

Funny and profound. This is a great film.

| Aug 12, 2022

Most of these scenes are hilarious–there’s an especially riotous montage offering excerpts from “164 misjudgments over a 12-year period”...

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 24, 2022

There are many superlatives and hyperbolic statements in this appreciation of Brooks' film, but it's just that kind of comedy. It makes you smile endlessly and warms your heart.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 12, 2022

While even the best frantic comedies often lose steam around the 90-minute mark, Defending Your Life is able to keep going for nearly two hours without wearing out its welcome or provoking a bout of fidgeting.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 18, 2022

Arguably writer-director Albert Brooks' best movie.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 9, 2021

What Albert Brooks may have lacked for a large-budget realization of his conceptual comedy, he made up for with trenchant, sad, relatable and ultimately hopeful notions. A far cry from the punkish provocations of his early days but no less powerful.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 31, 2021

A surprisingly thoughtful portrait of a man coming to terms with his mortality.

| Mar 29, 2021

Albert Brooks doesn't make many films, but those he does make are always welcome.

| Aug 16, 2017

Albert Brooks' best movie...

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 9, 2016

Priceless comedy with a message-rich heart, mild swearing.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 1, 2016

It could have just as easily been set in Dr. Freud's office, with his patient spilling his guts out on the couch.

| Original Score: B | Mar 16, 2015

| Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

Though visually impressive, the film shows problems with tonality, which veers from outright comedy to earnest therapy session--the "seize the day" lesson is not strong enough for a full-length picture.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 12, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2005