Ray Pride Newcity Oct 1, 2026 10/10

Cut-up and cacophony... breezy yet dense with detail, a punk-inflected meditation on film history as well as a bright comedy about work, lust and latex.

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Andrew Wyatt The Take-Up Jun 26, 2026

Assayas' "stranger in a strange land" dramedy still shines, 30 years later: an acerbic, insouciant and yet virtuosic delight about movies, movie-making, art, commerce, cultural identity, and the allure of a latex catsuit.

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Julian Singleton Cinapse Jul 12, 2025

A dizzying blur of cinema and reality, erasing the lines between medium, inspiration, and artistic appreciation.

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Eddie Harrison film-authority.com Jan 29, 2024 4/5

... one of the few films that capture the mixture of the mundane and the extraordinary that go into the making of even the most low-key film...

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Brian Susbielles InSession Film Mar 6, 2023

The disastrous production is Assayas’ way of self-reflection to what France’s film history has become...

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Jas Keimig The Stranger (Seattle, WA) Feb 2, 2022

While films-within-films can be a worn-out trope, Irma Vep is a delightfully frenetic movie that takes its cues from jumpy, behind-the-scenes documentaries.

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James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk Jun 19, 2021 3/4

However messy, conflicted, and cracked Irma Vep may be, it stands as a sometimes profound and always engaging portrait of film production on the edge.

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy May 14, 2021 3/4

A must for fans of films about films.

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Douglas Davidson Elements of Madness Apr 26, 2021

... Irma Vep appears to lambast those who favor safety, refusing to reimagine and reinvigorate, while also poking at those who apprise film in a binary perspective: either solely for the inteligencia or solely for the general public.

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Alyx Vesey Bitch Media Jan 11, 2021

Irma Vep is a magnificently varied film, integrating film footage, press interviews, gossip, and film's hurry-up-and-wait production schedule. Cheung in particular does a masterful job playing herself, at once transparent and opaque.

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Melissa Anderson 4Columns Oct 9, 2020

An exhilarating film that happens to be about moviemaking itself, Olivier Assayas's sinuous, kinetic, waggish Irma Vep is an oblique, supremely enjoyable course in movie history.

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Keith Phipps AV Club Jun 16, 2020

A funny and fascinatingly open-ended look at the state of the art, Irma Vep is well worth a look.

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Jared Mobarak Jaredmobarak.com Jun 16, 2020 8/10

If you're going to poke fun at the film industry, you might as well go for broke.

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Paul Tatara CNN.com Jun 16, 2020

I really enjoyed "Irma Vep." I will, however, be the first to admit that it's not for everybody.

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Michael Atkinson Spin Oct 25, 2019

Though Irma Vep may be best appreciated by movieheads, it's hardly just an homage. By its shrieking avant-garde climax, it's more like a statement on how history, even filmed history, can fragment and dissolve into oblivion.

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Alistair Ryder The Digital Fix Nov 12, 2018 7/10

Irma Vep is undeniably a complex and thought provoking work - but compared to the comparatively human films Assayas has made recently, it can't help but feel less rewarding as a result.

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Aug 1, 2011 B+

Light, playful, and self-reflexive, Assayas' film is a mi or work but it's enjoyable and boasts a graceful performance from Maggie Cheung.

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Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine Jan 7, 2009 3.5/4

The post-modern compulsions on display here may bring movies together, but they also keep people apart.

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David Edelstein Slate Mar 3, 2008

Irma Vep's director, Olivier Assayas, evinces a love of the process that's nearly as palpable as Truffaut's.

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David Rooney Variety Mar 3, 2008

Slender but appealing.

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