70
It’s a bit of a mess, no doubt about that, but a fascinating one.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
83
With a work like Scarlet, so gossamer-airy and enchanting that it could almost be family-adjacent viewing like Petite Maman, we are witnessing Marcello in a mercurial, mid-career stage, watching his sensibility truly take shape.
69
Paste Magazine by Jesse Hassenger
As-is, Scarlet is a beautiful loll, content with its self-made magic.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
It’s not groundbreaking stuff, but Marcello has a talent for making such material come alive through his inventive direction, whisking us away to a time and place that we experience as if we were actually there. It’s not enough to make Scarlet a great movie, but it’s one that manages to puts us in its shoes the way few films nowadays do.
63
Slant Magazine by Keith Watson
The film drifts so far into weightless fantasy that it practically dissipates before one’s eyes.
70
Screen Daily by Lisa Nesselson
Quietly rewarding thanks to an excellent cast whose faces we observe in frequent close-ups as their dirt-poor characters do their very best with scant resources.
80
Smaller, sweeter and more sensitive than Marcello’s earlier work.
50
The Playlist by Rafaela Sales Ross
The arresting visual competency of Scarlet, which includes the clever use of archival footage previously seen in Marcello’s Venice darling “Martin Eden” and the beautifully composed textures of its cinematography, can’t salvage its muddled pace.