81
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Slant MagazineSlant MagazineNot only a monstrous visual achievement, but one of the most uniquely humanistic animated features of all time.
- 100The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottIt is a work of obsessive artisanal discipline and unfettered artistic vision. You have never seen anything like it.
- 90In a story built on ugly secrets and lifetimes of terrible events, small moments of beauty and redemption sneak through - proving that sometimes utilizing those bitter remnants of charred memories can prove more fruitful than Earl Gray thought.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThough certainly not for everyone (and not for kids of any age), the regret-tinged film displays a distinctive voice and will be embraced by devotees of offbeat animation.
- 75The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe connections and the meaning aren't immediately apparent, and viewers are given plenty of time to find their own patterns and invent their own associations. Then, in its final half-hour, it pulls all the threads together, and a breathtaking bigger picture finally comes into focus.
- 75New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeNot everyone will be in tune with the movie's sick sense of humor, although it's sometimes hilarious.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesA slice-of-life film like you have not seen. It is the story of people in a small ordinary town, knowing nothing but their ordinary affairs, revealing their sins and crimes with an ordinary negligence.
- 70This labor of love from do-it-all animator Chris Sullivan has the same rough-edged, cantankerous charms as the characters that populate it. Narrative alone is too uneven to captivate fully for the picture's two-hour-plus duration, though there's so much to see that "Spirits" should nonetheless prove a draw for adult audiences.
- 60Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearA genuine labor of love and fictional self-loathing, Sullivan's animation style is undeniably compelling, whether he's channeling Grant Wood's paintings or Robert Crumb's monochromatic sketches. But the interweaving stories of commercialized religion, rancid Americana and alcoholic wretches start wearing thin around the movie's midpoint; by the end, the whole morose endeavor risks becoming downright threadbare.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceConsuming Spirits is overlong. A dystopian T.S. Eliot once said, "Humankind cannot bear too much reality," maybe even in a cartoon.