The strange action plays out with a dreamlike lucidity reminiscent of late Luis Buñuel... It's also dreamlike in its handling of time; the film takes place over a few years but feels as if it transpires over a few days.

| Apr 20, 2017

The movie's irreverence is in certain respects commendable, but its po-faced attempts at cinematic philosophizing are transparently stilted.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 21, 2017

"Being Vertical" ... has a rough gravity that holds your attention and sticks in your mind.

| Jan 19, 2017

Staying Vertical propels us on a careening ride from eros to thanatos, the creative/destructive urges that lurk beneath a slim veneer of civilization.

| Jan 19, 2017

The sort of movie that is often described as "not knowing what kind of film it wants to be" - a dismissal that, in this case, should instead be considered high praise.

| Jan 19, 2017

As always with Guiraudie's films, Staying Vertical shrewdly (and often hilariously) captures both the seriousness and the absurdity of sex ...

| Jan 18, 2017

The pacing and mise en scène of Staying Vertical are as deliberate as the events of its plot are hallucinatory, yielding a marriage of exacting form and content that encompasses the mundane and the fantastic in equal measure.

| Jan 3, 2017

An intriguing variant on the usual tale of writer's block.

| Oct 27, 2016

The film changes gears whenever one is lulled into believing that it has finally settled into a recognizable narrative pattern.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 25, 2016

Bonnard is a wonderfully quizzical presence in the lead, expertly creating the impression of a person who has no idea what he wants but is nonetheless determined to get it.

| Original Score: A- | May 20, 2016

More adventurous viewers will nonetheless be charmed by this delightfully queer oddity.

| May 17, 2016

Gorgeously shot against a barren setting to emphasize his alienation, Staying Vertical offers a consistent world rich with possible meanings.

| Original Score: B+ | May 17, 2016

Guiraudie wants to have a little sport with the irritation that comes with a creative block -- but he can't quite make art out of it.

| Original Score: 5.8/10 | May 17, 2016

Lacking a guiding principle or a forceful sense of inner momentum, the film ... idles between provocations and too many of its potential themes ... wither on the vine.

| Original Score: C | May 16, 2016

This frostily fascinating film shows life to be a pretty surreal event.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 13, 2016

A loose, drifty sojourn through themes of paternity, comfort and sex-based procrastination, which will intrigue as many viewers as it confounds.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 12, 2016

An incoherent, inconsequential picture which sometimes looks worryingly as if it is being made up as it goes along.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 12, 2016

The technical bravura that Guiraudie summoned in "Stranger" - the subtle manipulation of light, weather, shot language, and temporal cunning - now falls by the wayside in a story that lurches from episode to disconnected episode.

| May 12, 2016