70
Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista
Saying We Are Little Zombies is “a bit hectic” is a bit of an understatement, and yet, as Nagahisa’s passion project exploded across the screen, I found myself giving my heart to it.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
58
Every eye-popping sequence and strongly-performed scene feels too far from the next. Perhaps with a little less, there would be quite a bit more. There’s so much to respect in We Are Little Zombies, just not enough to hold on to.
83
As this unclassifiable wildfire burns itself out, all you can say for sure is that these little zombies are alive in ways that most adults have lost the ability to imagine. Whatever demented game its characters are playing, Nagahisa’s live-action Twitch-fest is delightful for how it lets us watch along.
75
The film is a kaleidoscopic portrait of a world where emotions are accessed and revealed primarily through digital intermediaries.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Emily Yoshida
A rainbow-colored scream into the abyss, Nagahisa’s story of a quartet of orphaned tweens who start a chiptune rock band is as rigorous in its exploration of grief as it is stylistically exuberant, and one of the most exciting premieres at Sundance this year.
80
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Smart, noisy and flashily assured, We Are Little Zombies is entirely, gleefully its own thing.
91
We Are Little Zombies is much more about style than story. Nagahisa delivers a visual tour-de-force, careening wildly through an unimaginable array of arresting shots.
88
We Are Little Zombies is the most entertaining thing to come out of Japan since sushi, “Iron Chef” and the Miata.
88
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
A relentless, but emotionally well-balanced character study of Hikari (Keita Ninomiya) and his bandmates as they receive a series of transformative reality checks, and also perform post-millennial garage rock that sounds like a cross between post-shoegaze emo rock and video-game-style chiptunes.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
Blissful, whacked-out, inspired, juvenile, dementedly inventive, hyper-energized — all of this and more apply to music video and advertising whiz Makoto Nagahisa's first feature We Are Little Zombies.