71
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxEven Wong's detractors, who consider him more stylist than auteur, will have a tough time dismissing the extraordinary emotional depth he achieves here.
- 90Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorChicago ReaderLisa AlspectorWriter-director Wong Kar-wai makes these five self-consciously idiosyncratic types--often seen through distorting lenses in cinematographer Christopher Doyle's somber, garish Hong Kong--fully and instantly believable.
- 90Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasAn exhilarating rush of a movie, with all manner of go-for-broke visual bravura that expresses perfectly the free spirits of his bold young people. [22 May 1998, Pg.F9]
- 78Austin ChronicleRussell SmithAustin ChronicleRussell SmithIf you're fed up with the stultifying, formula-driven character of today's mainstream films, give Fallen Angels a try. At the very least you'll be engaged, and if you're lucky you may just recapture some of your original wonder at the seductive power of movies.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertTo describe the plot is to miss the point. Fallen Angels takes the materials of the plot -- the characters and what they do -- and assembles them like a photo montage. At the end, you have impressions, not conclusions.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannIt's hard to follow, the characters are ill-defined, and the wide-angle shots used by Wong's perennial cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, are deliberately unflattering.
- 75San Francisco ExaminerG. Allen JohnsonSan Francisco ExaminerG. Allen JohnsonFallen Angels is proof that Wong will try anything, and the result is an eclectic mix of images and disjointed editing, sounds and rhythms that are at times as powerful as any piece of filmmaking likely to be seen all year. It can also, every once in awhile, be tedious and trying.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenFallen Angels certainly abounds in visual pizazz, clever in jokes and trendy pop references, but such things can carry a movie only so far.
- 40EmpireEmpireA colourful and stylish romp, for sure, but a feeling of restlessness sets in long before the series of false endings that finally bring it to a close. Time passes, things happen, but nobody emerges very much wiser.