A stunning and unique look at war

| Nov 3, 2024

War may be hell for people of all ages, but Folman ensures that moments of grace and beauty shine through, best exemplified by Roni Dayag’s recollection of a late-night swim away from the scene of a beachfront battle.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 17, 2023

Waltz with Bashir's illustrated and animated interviews with fellow veterans of the 1982 Lebanon War give the events and effects discussed a dream-like quality that often represent traumatizing real-life history.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 11, 2023

A very powerful film about the horrors of war and the corrosive effects of dehumanization, told with a fast paced and splendid animation style. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 2, 2020

The somber reflection of war and renderings of absurd happenings along the way convey the horrors of war hauntingly. The composition, pace and tenor is nothing short of brilliant.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 14, 2020

Dreams are central to this shattering, not-to-be-missed animated Israeli documentary, which opens on a gothic note that suggests a particularly macabre graphic novel or the corrosive pessimism of film noir.

| Jan 27, 2020

A powerful rumination on war's human toll, crafted with a unique and singular eye.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 6, 2019

A brave, damning and riveting piece of cinema that deserves to find an audience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2018

A sensitive, remarkable piece of work that presents a devastating part of history in a way that never feels inappropriate, rather, it feels essential.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 31, 2018

(Waltz With Bashir turns) the recollections and re-enactments of the war into visually stunning works of art (and) will leave you utterly devastated.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 25, 2018

Waltz with Bashir brilliantly echoes its cultural investigations with its formal contradictions.

| Apr 18, 2016

The movie's aesthetic and narrative confusion are as much products of a muddled, if just barely successful, approach as it is of Folman's search among the ruins of his memory.

| Apr 7, 2015

As hypnotic as the animation is, it distracts from the film's clear problems.

| Original Score: C | Jun 22, 2013

The flatness of the Flash animation keeps visual bombast to a minimum, even during surreal interludes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 17, 2012

Every scene fizzes and crackles with creative charisma as we are carried on an emotional journey of epic proportions.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 24, 2011

Despite the director's refusal to come to terms with Israel's role in the Sabra-Shatila massacre, this is a pacifist film that ranks with "Platoon" and other classics.

| Oct 6, 2010

Persepolis meets Full Metal Jacket in Ari Folman's powerful and original animated war film.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 14, 2010

Waltz with Bashir uses vivid, hand-drawn animation to bring to life interviews Folman conducted with friends who were involved in the Lebanese war in the early 1980s.

| Jul 6, 2010

These depictions of the dementia of war have a hallucinatory power that can stand alongside those of Apocalypse Now.

| Jul 6, 2010

The message of the futility of war has rarely been painted with such bold strokes.

| Jul 6, 2010