Not merely a story about the loneliness of a career on the road, Entertainment is the struggle of a man singularly steadfast in his pursuit of his chosen art.

| Aug 1, 2023

Entertainment is a film that hearty and curious viewers will return to time and again in an attempt to parse its meaning...

| Jan 14, 2021

Part Lynchian hallucination, part deadpan comedy, part existential musing, Rick Alverson's unique vision is fully realized, and even ugly, but demands to be watched.

| Mar 16, 2020

There's something powerful in Entertainment's ability to push down into the darkest depths without any hesitation.

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 24, 2019

Entertainment challenges our tolerance for comic absurdity by making it confrontational. At times, it's hard to figure out whether you should be laughing, gasping or both.

| Nov 3, 2018

With Turkington's deft hand, Entertainment methodically deconstructs the world's shallow surfaces.

| Aug 25, 2018

Rick Alverson's breakthrough film about a bitter, aging stand-up comedian who is a character that Nathaniel West might have conceived.

| Jan 19, 2018

It sparks interesting discussion on what actually is funny, what should be considered funny, who to respect as far as comedians go

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 4, 2017

Though often slowly paced, Entertainment reveals itself as a remarkably dense, if not difficult film that rewards patience and a willingness to step into the anti-social mind.

| Dec 8, 2016

Entertainment is a fully realised and extremely accomplished translation of Gregg Turkington's Neil Hamburger character to the big screen.

| Original Score: Highly Recommended | Mar 2, 2016

Alverson continues to zero in on the most brutal tendencies of contemporary comedy.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Mar 2, 2016

This is one of those in-your-face, angry, confrontational movies. It wasn't just a chore to sit through, it was more like a homework assignment given to you by a teacher who hates your guts.

| Original Score: C | Jan 5, 2016

A weird road flick about a weirdo stand-up comic with a weird repertoire.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Dec 24, 2015

An unsparing road trip through the barrenness of American pop culture and, by extension, the human soul.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 4, 2015

The Frankenstein-esque final scenes of Entertainment make it painfully clear: As much as we want to read them as social critique, Rick Alverson makes monster movies.

| Original Score: B | Dec 3, 2015

There's a chic emptiness to "Entertainment," undoubtedly, and anti-comedy constructs that may rub the wrong way, but there's also a spiky intelligence at work too, one that engages through the artifice of disengagement and the illusion of "performance."

| Nov 19, 2015

It is not fun, but its confrontational style yields dividends.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 19, 2015

A daring and mainly successful black comedy about a dour and depressive comedian on a dead-end tour of California.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 19, 2015

It's the closest emulation of a waking nightmare in an American movie in a very long time. The anxiety is generalized, but it's also as specific as Hell.

| Nov 18, 2015

A Greek tragedy told through the vessel of a small-time comedian, Entertainment is a bleak look into a broken man swallowed-up by second-rate showbusiness.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 14, 2015