70
Small but charming film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Filmed in a leisurely, understated style, this dark comedy is downright entrancing. A spectacular directorial debut.
70
Village Voice by Edward Crouse
Ends up an intricate, becalmed take on a soul adrift.
50
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Krause is very nearly too passive. Deadpan is one thing, an empty vessel is another.
80
Michael Schorr's delightfully deadpan comedy debut blew away the German box office, and once you let yourself sink into its gentle rhythms, as slow and deliberate as those of its protagonist and inflected with tiny but significant shifts of pace and tone, you'll see why.
50
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Simply too tedious and stretched out to be amusing. Had Schorr brought in his picture at 80 or 90 minutes Schultze might have been a different story.
70
With dialogue as spare as its harsh landscapes, the film is so tonally dry that it makes Aki Kaurismäki look like the Farrelly brothers--it begins at a snail's pace before speeding up to a turtle's drowsy crawl.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
A quietly celebratory film about music and human kindness.
50
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
It's a good thing the movie has so little dialogue, because when it talks, the words dilute its almost surreal visual spell, and the fructose turns to saccharine.
75
A sweet and charming treat.
Ultimately a very sweet and endearing film that may have wrung a few tears out of me by the end. Between Schultze’s amiable near-silence and the zydeco-style accordion music he plays (much to the chagrin of his traditional music club), caring about Schultze and what happens to him is easy. He’s a lovable guy. Contrary to some critics, I found the slow speed appropriate and more than tolerable. “You have all the time in the world,” everyone tells Schultze after he is forced into early retirement, left with nothing but a salt lamp and a hacking cough. They mean it as a good thing, but staring all this time in the face makes its recipient uneasy. Restlessness on the viewer’s part feels pointed, purposeful — it’s built into the film itself.