Romance & Cigarettes is the real thing, a film that breaks out of Hollywood jail with audacious originality, startling sexuality, heartfelt emotions, and an anarchic liberty. The actors toss their heads and run their mouths like prisoners let loose to race free.Read Full Review »
90
Salon.com: Andrew O'Hehir
It's the most original picture by an American director I've seen this year, and also the most delightful.Read Full Review »
80
The New York Times: Stephen Holden
There is more raw vitality pumping through Romance & Cigarettes, John Turturro’s passionate ode to the sensual pulse of life in a working-class neighborhood of Queens, than in a dozen perky high school musicals. This is a movie in which a dirty mind is a good thing. Call it “The Singing Id.” Prudes, be forewarned.Read Full Review »
75
Boston Globe: Louise Kennedy
A hilarious, touching, and (except for a dip into melodrama near the end) skillful blend of subtle emotional depths and a dazzlingly playful surface.Read Full Review »
75
ReelViews: James Berardinelli
It's almost unfair to make the comparison because there are so many fundamental differences, but the closest recent movie to Romance and Cigarettes is "Moulin Rouge." The key likeness is easy to spot: the characters spontaneously break into familiar pop songs.Read Full Review »
70
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Carina Chocano
Enthusiastically smutty and lyrical, the movie attempts to capture the way we unconsciously set the emotional moments of our lives to pop music, turning fits of passion, anger and righteous indignation into elaborate musical numbers in our heads.Read Full Review »
63
Philadelphia Inquirer: Carrie Rickey
Romance and Cigarettes is lewd and it's lurid and looks to be a lost pop opera, but it has more vitality than anything else out there.Read Full Review »
50
Village Voice: Michelle Orange
The bleakly bizarre, uneven aesthetic and direction that is fluid but not quite limber succeed and fail from montage to montage, with the principals doing a sort of karaoke tribute to the likes of Joplin and Springsteen.Read Full Review »
42
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Gregory Kirschling
With Walken around, hair up high, of course there are fleeting moments of fascinating weirdness, but even then, you're still moderately embarrassed for the cast.Read Full Review »
30
Washington Post: Stephen Hunter
the movie comes on as a novelty item, meaning it's so full of disparate parts and so unable to approach coherence, it just sits there and burns out.Read Full Review »
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