Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Whether by dint of his source material or his own maturity, the filmmaker has invested the surface sheen with tenderness and emotional depth. It’s no surprise that Julieta is marvelous to look at, but it possesses just as much substance as style.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Almodóvar presents this material in a way that never splits our attention, even as he’s giving us a deluge of sensory and emotional detail. It’s as if he’s internalized the story so completely that he can’t make a gesture — can’t move the camera, can’t shape a moment — without saying something true.

We Got This Covered by Lauren Humphries-Brooks

Julieta is a timeless and mature examination of femininity and guilt that marks a return to form for director Pedro Almodóvar.

Austin Chronicle by Steve Davis

One thing about this extremely talented artist: He never sees anything in just black-and-white.

Boston Globe by Peter Keough

When the effusive Pedro Almodóvar adapts the minimalist Alice Munro, he reveals the passions seething under the bleakness of the latter’s monotone mid-Canada. By setting his version of the Nobel Prize-winner’s interlinked stories “Chance,” “Soon,” and “Silence” in the vibrant settings of Madrid and other Spanish locales, he adds a Sirkian twist to Munro’s Chekhovian sensibility.

RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

[Almodóvar] may share Catholic roots with Hitchcock and Bresson, but this film’s concern with guilt, transference, fate, mystery and (more obliquely) faith connects intricately with his native culture as well as the ideas expressed in his previous films. Building on his previous work while also charting a new course, it is suffused with the casual confidence of an established master.

Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall

Working for the first time with French cinematographer Jean-Claude Larrieu, the director retains his signature framing and crimson flourishes.

Time Out London by Dave Calhoun

It might be familiar territory for Almodóvar, but only a master of his art could make it look so easy.

The Telegraph by Tim Robey

It’s one of his least crazy films in narrative terms, but you couldn’t call it subdued, because the colours and textures he’s coaxed from a new director of photography, Jean-Claude Larrieu, are even more intoxicating than ever – it’s like an unexpectedly dry martini in a dazzling Z-stem glass.

Empire by Anna Smith

A slick, stylish melodrama with an involving story and a cracking cast. Star Adriana Ugarte is a real find.

The Playlist by Jessica Kiang

If the resulting film, Julieta feels neither wholly Munro nor typically Almodovar in final execution, there is still a very compelling energy given out by the collision.

The Film Stage by Rory O'Connor

Riffing on Spanish telenovelas, Hitchcock, and film noir, Almodóvar and his production team have put together a slight, but undeniably gorgeous bauble with a simple sort of story that nestles in somewhere between the high and lowbrow.

Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan

Although the seams may show on a narrative level, and some may find it over-cooked, this is a luxurious slide into female neurosis.

Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan

Although the seams may show on a narrative level, and some may find it over-cooked, this is a luxurious slide into female neurosis.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

For all the glib élan on display, there is very little being said, above and beyond the slickness of a well-tuned melodrama. The plot always risks revealing its essential silliness and there isn't much wit or humour to alleviate the mood.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This is not as richly compelling as other Almodóvar films, but it’s a fluent and engaging work.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

It's one thing to make a minor, accomplished work after focusing on grander statements, but Julieta mainly disappoints because it feels like the kind of straightforward, unadventurous drama that the filmmaker generally excels at reinventing through his own peculiar vision. This time, he plays it too safe.

Variety by Peter Debruge

While Julieta represents a welcome return to the female-centric storytelling that has earned Almodovar his greatest acclaim, it is far from this reformed renegade’s strongest or most entertaining work.

The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin

There is a decorousness at play here that adds an odd new flavor to the Almodovar repertoire, a politeness that’s quite unlike the lusty vulgarity of the past.