99
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis magical and elusive work, which always seems to place second behind "Citizen Kane" in polls of great films, is so simple and so labyrinthine, so guileless and so angry, so innocent and so dangerous, that you can't simply watch it, you have to absorb it.
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonNo other film has a final effect quite like "Rules." One walks away from it drained and exhilarated, after experiencing a whole world and seemingly every possible emotion in a few swift golden hours.
- 100Los Angeles TimesMark Chalon SmithLos Angeles TimesMark Chalon SmithOn the surface, a lace of flirtations, insinuations and rejections compose the basic plotting. But Renoir uses flashes of accelerating drama to amplify his bigger points.
- 100SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirLike the very greatest artists in all media -- here I go with the meaningless superlatives again -- Renoir was able to transcend his own perspective, his own prejudices, and glimpse something of the terror and wonder of human life, the pain of misapplied or rejected love, for rich as for poor.
- 100Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonRules would have been just another good movie if not for its masterly visual design. With it, however, the black-and-white film enters the realm of immortality.
- 100LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenStill ahead of its time.
- 100Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenLow comedy walks hand and hand with tragedy and beauty throughout; the film is frothy one minute, nearly apocalyptic the next, and so you’re never fully allowed to gather your bearings.
- One of cinema's most monumental achievements, Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME passionately tackles the pre-WWII French class system, and succeeds in bringing forth the complexities and frailties underlying bourgeois civility.
- 90The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasFar from muting the satire, Renoir's hearty characterization complicates it and gives it life, which is rare among broadsides at the bourgeoisie.