Christopher Campbell Cinematical Sep 18, 2007 4.5/5

Wickedly funny and astonishingly conceived, the film is a nonstop cavalcade of shocks, surprises and enchantments. I loved every minute of it.

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Ken Eisner Georgia Straight Apr 16, 2007

As pure cinema, there's no denying the power of Lunacy, although mostly that power can best be described as, well, sadistic.

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Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Mar 17, 2007 3/5

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Rex Roberts Film Journal International Feb 22, 2007

Svankmajer continues to push at the boundaries of convention, juxtaposing blasphemy and torture while mocking the possibility of transcendence.

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Bill Stamets Chicago Sun-Times Oct 27, 2006 2/4

A horse-drawn carriage crossing an expressway overpass promises a more subversive ride than Svankmajer delivers.

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Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune Oct 26, 2006 2.5/4

While Lunacy leaves you with the impression that Svankmajer is more expressive with cutlets than he is with his atypically human-dominated dreamscape, some of the images are doozies.

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Jeff Shannon Seattle Times Oct 13, 2006 3/4

This is one of those deliriously unhinged movies that looks, feels and sounds genuinely insane, for all the right artistic reasons.

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Bill White Seattle Post-Intelligencer Oct 12, 2006 B

The definition of liberation as the act of being delivered from the hands of one lunatic into the hands of another who is equally mad remains universal in its political and social applications.

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Sean P. Means Salt Lake Tribune Sep 29, 2006 2.5/4

For all the arresting visuals, Svankmajer's morose depiction of the blurry line between madness and sanity is surprisingly pedestrian.

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Ty Burr Boston Globe Sep 8, 2006 2.5/4

At nearly two hours Lunacy becomes repetitive, at first ingeniously and then with a slowly dulling edge. The meat parade ceases to shock.

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Laura Kelly South Florida Sun-Sentinel Sep 7, 2006 2.5/4

Yes, the film's undeniable horror lies in the lunacy of filmmaking, not the story.

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Ruthe Stein San Francisco Chronicle Aug 25, 2006 2/4

Fans of movies about inmates who take over an asylum -- King of Hearts and Marat/Sade are prime examples -- will be amused by this surrealistic take on the subject punctuated by animated interludes featuring, of all things, dancing meat.

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Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid Aug 24, 2006 3/4

These ideas are twisted enough that they still hold a certain kind of interest.

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Mark Olsen Los Angeles Times Aug 18, 2006 3/5

For all its visual surprises and visceral shocks, Lunacy is still the kind of film that is easier to admire than it is to actually like.

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Bob Strauss Los Angeles Daily News Aug 18, 2006 3/4

Only a master filmmaker could make such a fantastically sustained voyage into the Land of Questioning Reality, God and Propriety, and everything else we try to organize our sensibilities around.

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Jay Antani Los Angeles Alternative Aug 18, 2006 3/5

Lunacy lacks the teeth to be truly audacious. Yet its leisurely pacing and silly send-ups of psychosexual perversions make it an amusing enough gothic comedy.

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Ella Taylor L.A. Weekly Aug 17, 2006

Lunacy feels programmatic, the repetitive working through of an idea that had me checking my watch.

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Laura Clifford Reeling Reviews Aug 13, 2006 B+

...subversive and horrific fun.

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J. Hoberman Village Voice Aug 12, 2006

Connoisseurs of the disgustingly visceral will find Jan Svankmajer hardly mellowed at 72. Lunacy is dark, scary, and yucky -- even by the Czech animator's own standards.

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