Holy MotorsMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 84 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

not for kids

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

100

New York Daily News |
Each episode of director Leos Carax's film perfectly masters the exact tone of a different genre, finding precisely the saddest moment in each of its vignettes. Read full review
100

Washington Post | Ann Hornaday
An electrifying, confounding, what-the-hell-just-happened exercise in unbounded imagination, unapologetic theatricality, bravura acting and head-over-heels movie-love. Read full review
100

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
An exhilarating puzzle, one of the grand cinematic eruptions of the year. Read full review
90

NPR |
Holy Motors - exhilarating, mournful and always stunning to look at - makes no sense at all if you have your heart set on narrative comprehensibility or even plain old thematic cohesion. It could almost be a film made in a time before language, a rendering of modern life - or modern lives - as a kind of cinematic cave painting. With songs. And a white stretch limo. And Kylie Minogue. Read full review
88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Holy Motors, fueled by pure feeling, is a dream of a movie you want to get lost in. It's a thing of beauty. Read full review
88

Chicago Tribune | Michael Phillips
Lavant is splendid in the film, and he's essentially the entire film - and yet, Holy Motors is somewhat more than a contraption built for a fearless performer. Read full review
88

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
Here is a film that is exasperating, frustrating, anarchic and in a constant state of renewal. It's not tame. Some audience members are going to grow very restless. My notion is, few will be bored. Read full review
80

The Hollywood Reporter |
Exhilarating, opaque, heartbreaking and completely bonkers – French auteur Leos Carax's so-called comeback film, Holy Motors, is a deliciously preposterous piece of filmmaking that appraises life and death and everything in between, reflected in a funhouse mirror. Read full review
75

Boston Globe | Wesley Morris
The film has sprung from the mind of the Frenchman Leos Carax and ought to be seen to be believed, on the largest screen you can find, and probably sober, too, since it becomes its own narcotic. Read full review
75

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
You will look in vain for some definite logic to Holy Motors. You could see it as a metaphor for the actor's life, or a story about the desire to transcend the self. Anything you decide is fine. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Holy Motors on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says not for kids French drama is mature and strange, but also sad and lovely.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Holy Motors is a very strange yet poetic, sad, lovely -- and mature -- movie from highly respected French director Leos Carax. Violence ranges from unsettling dream/nightmare imagery and discussions of death to killings, spurting blood, and dead bodies. There's also graphic male full-frontal nudity (including an erect penis) and other strong sexuality. Language is mild but includes two uses of the French "merde," which the English subtitles translate as "s--t." The main character also smokes several cigarettes and gets drunk on whisky. Holy Motors is bizarre enough that only the most movie-crazy teens will even be interested in seeing it.

Families can talk about Holy Motors' sexuality. How is sex portrayed? Are any of the scenes disturbing? Why? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.
What's the impact of the film's violence? How does it contribute to the story?
Do you think a movie like this would ever (or could ever) be made in the United States? Why or why not? How does it compare to other foreign films you've seen?

The good stuff

Positive messages: It's tough to know what Holy Motors is actually saying, but one possible theme is the sad, lonely lives of performers, giving up their own identities and taking on others' on cue. Characters don't seem to learn much, except that we see them growing weary of such a life.
Positive role models: The main character is a highly skilled actor and performer who takes on several different characters and occupies them completely. This level of skill is admirable and inspirational, but the character himself is rather sad and lonely and growing weary of his existence.

What to watch for

Violence: The main character plays a creepy monster in one sequence, with a milky-white eye and a crazy walk. He bites off a woman's fingers, with blood. Later, he kidnaps a model, licks her armpit, and smears blood from his lips there. Characters are stabbed in the neck, with streams of spurting blood. A man is shot at a sidewalk cafe, with more blood. Two figures are shown splattered on the sidewalk, having jumped from the top of a building. Characters die, and there are conversations about death. There's also some strange, unsettling, and potentially scary dream/nightmare imagery.
Sexy stuff: The main character appears fully naked for long moments, with an erect penis. An attractive woman appears in a latex motion-capture outfit, and the main character wears a similar outfit. They engage in sensual touching (breasts) and licking (crotch area). Later, their performance is turned into a brief, computer-animated scene of lovemaking dragon-like creatures (complete with animated penis). Another woman appears in her bra and panties.
Language: The French "merde" is used twice, and the subtitles translate it to "s--t." "Moron" and "idiot" are also used.
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: The main character smokes cigarettes regularly. He slowly starts drinking whisky over the course of the film; in one scene, he appears to be drunk. The mood is one of despair and regret, rather than humor.

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