The picture is anti-war, anti-repression, and full of fun; a charming hour and a half of black humor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 8, 2024

Its strength resides in a philosophy of self-exploration through personal fulfillment, bodily acceptance and exploration, artistic creation, and spontaneity.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 14, 2022

Exemplifies the expression "it shouldn't have worked, but it did" more than any movie I can think of, is a romantic comedy, and also a very dark comedy (50th anniversary)

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 31, 2021

The characters of Harold and Maude are its lifeblood; but the visual and auditory elements of the film tell its story just as well.

| Dec 30, 2021

With far too many movies being incorrectly labeled as "cult films" these days -- I expect we'll reach a point where even blockbusters like Avengers: End Game and Jurassic World will be given that designation -- here's an example of the genuine article.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 18, 2021

Essentially, no character in the film remains plain or unassuming; they're all overdone, exaggerated, and flamboyant - yet entirely believable.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 30, 2020

A philosophical black comedy for grandparents and grandchildren, or what Walt Disney and Lucille Ball might have thought up if they'd taken courses in the Absurd at UCLA.

| Apr 4, 2018

Bud Cort delivers one of the all-time cinematic expressions of existential horror.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2017

The fact that [it] isn't very funny and, like its 80-year-old heroic, long outlives its necessary life, is less important than the fact that the characters frequently react gently or like credible human beings to the script's impossible notions.

| Jan 18, 2013

cuts through the superficial surfaces of conventional romance and digs into what actually draws people together

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 28, 2012

Unlike claustrophobically cute odd-couple movies, bottles some of the flavour of its time. Harold's fake suicides are a pale defiance and reflection of his cloistered, sapped life. The vital counterculture (Maude) helps Harold avoid the army.

| May 10, 2012

This darkly humorous ,romantic comedy between an introvert adolescent and and old spunky woman, is playing it too safe to be considered truly anti-establishment, but it became a cult picture.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 8, 2011

A classic of dark comedy.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 2, 2011

If there's one comedy to represent the woof and warp of the early '70s, "Harold and Maude" is it.

| Original Score: A+ | Apr 12, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 3, 2009

A doggedly eccentric film which some will reject out of hand. Others will find it profundly moving and life affirming.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 24, 2007

Simpleminded, but it's fairly inoffensive, at least until Ashby lingers over the concentration-camp serial number tattooed on Gordon's arm. Some things are beyond the reach of whimsy.

| Oct 24, 2007

It is most successful when it keeps to the tone of an insane fairystory set up at the beginning of the movie.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 20, 2005

It's not quite a romance, not quite a buddy picture. It is, however, one of the '70s quirkiest comedies, and its bleak morbidity is uncommonly matched by its over-the-top hilarity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2005