76
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichYou might actually say the documentary itself is Mohassess’s final canvas, so infused it becomes with his alternately infuriating and infectious personality.
- 90Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonThe lovely ball-&-socket meeting of the two artists' sensibilities is what makes the doc sing, even if it is a chronicle of a death foretold.
- 88Slant MagazineDiego SemereneSlant MagazineDiego SemereneMitra Farahani rescues the doc from becoming a talking-head fest by embracing her creative self as a character and exposing the travails of her own authorship process.
- 75RogerEbert.comRogerEbert.comAs if to confirm how crucial timing is to documentaries, the artist gives the filmmaker a last performance that helps make her portrait of him as extraordinary as the man it portrays.
- 75Boston GlobePeter KeoughBoston GlobePeter KeoughIn person, as seen in Fifi Howls From Happiness, Mitra Farahani’s ambitious and self-reflexive documentary of the artist’s last days, Mohassess enthusiastically acts out those traits. It’s a performance enhanced by his diabolical, phlegm-choked laughter at his own bleakly ironic pronouncements and denunciations of the world in general.
- 70The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisA portrait of the artist as a refusenik, a recluse, a survivor and a stubborn question mark, “Fifi Howls From Happiness” registers, by turns, as a celebration, an excavation and an increasingly urgent rescue mission.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckA provocative portrait of an artist who seemed hell-bent on destroying his own legacy.
- 70Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleBy its bittersweet end, Fifi Howls From Happiness has stayed almost entirely in one apartment and yet somehow unveiled both a life in full and a blank canvas.
- 60The DissolveCharles BramescoThe DissolveCharles BramescoFarahani’s elegiac documentary takes far more interest in Mohassess the man than Mohassess the artist.