...[The Second Act] is a hilarious satire that blends formal virtuosity, playful repetition, and the extraordinary work of the leading quartet into a reflection on the survival of cinema...[Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 20, 2025

...The Second Act would have been a much more incisive and interesting short than the resulting film... [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2025

Dupieux thus dares, without bitterness and avoiding any hint of a professorial tone, to discuss much of what his profession represents, and even cinema itself in general. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 11, 2025

Dupieux moves between reality and fiction, or rather, between fiction and fiction, with a comedic tone that mixes the crude and the crazy with a verbal intensity that is anything but simple. [Full review in Spanish]

| Apr 11, 2025

It's an avalanche of metatextual jokes, and many of them work very well. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2025

[The Second Act] reaffirms its director as the writer of a film without concessions, embracing risk and creative freedom. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 6, 2025

For better or worse, this silly, surprising absurdist comedy is classic Quentin Dupieux.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2025

Dupieux knocks this conceit about and has some real fun with it. Since Seydoux, Lindon, Garrel, and Quenard are fixtures on French screens, Dupieux's sense of mischief leads him to riff on their celebrity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2025

This ferocious, dichotomous masquerade is never boring.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 7, 2025

Dupieux remains his usual self in the effort, going sneaky, silly, and dark with the picture, and for those who possess the patience, there’s an enjoyably weird viewing experience to be had.

| Original Score: B | Nov 12, 2024

The Second Act is one massive metatextual film that’s never fully clear when it is the fake movie, and when the movie on the making of the movie kicks into gear, only to reveal that it’s also part of the movie, and so on and so forth.

| Original Score: A | Oct 23, 2024

The Second Act is a peculiar movie that unfolds like a delightful absurdist comedy, capable of making the audience laugh, as long as they don't expect a traditional ending. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 14, 2024

Dupieux is characteristically abrupt, absurd, eccentric, indulges in ingenuities, is playful with gags and anarchic with the material on hand.

| Jul 10, 2024

The Second Act is a lovely, droll, slight 82-minute meta-film that reflects upon art, society, and love, all within the context of taking the piss out of film production and A.I. in the best possible way.

| Jul 10, 2024

It leaves us with an overwhelming sensation of “that’s it?” And then it does the damnedest thing: It never lets us go. Weeks later, The Second Act haunts me, and I can’t quite articulate why.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 3, 2024

The line between truth and fiction becomes deliciously blurred.

| Jun 12, 2024

There’s plenty of talent both behind and in front of the camera, but the result is somewhat disappointing.

| Jun 2, 2024

The mature work of a former electronic musician who never stops wondering about the fate of images. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 22, 2024

Nothing more than a funny collection of jokes. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 22, 2024

The Second Act ends up completely volatilizing the very notions of reality and fiction. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2024