75
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88RogerEbert.comRogerEbert.comThis cockeyed, oblique attempt to get closer to the worldview of David Lynch — one of American cinema’s finest oddities — is a compelling slice of cinephile inquiry.
- 83The Film StageEd FranklThe Film StageEd FranklThere’s much to interest the Lynch fan here, but it also might be an unparalleled assessment of the artistic learning of a great American filmmaker.
- Where The Art Life proves most informative to longtime Lynch fans is in its closely observed depiction of his creative process, glimpsed here as he putters around his home studio in the Hollywood Hills, his adorable toddler daughter in tow, creating paintings, sculptures, music, or whatever else strikes his fancy.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDavid Lynch, The Art Life will entrance the director’s fans and, who knows, inspire budding, out-of-the-box creators in an artistic coming-of-age tale, told in his own words and deliberate tones.
- 80Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonTime Out LondonTom HuddlestonThis intimate documentary about the leftfield American filmmaker David Lynch is insightful and absorbing.
- 75Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThroughout the documentary, the undisguised regret and longing of David Lynch's reminiscences are often startling.
- 75The PlaylistChris EvangelistaThe PlaylistChris EvangelistaThe Art Life is more concerned with the art rather than the life of Lynch, and this is the only true weakness of the doc. While informative to a certain degree, there’s always a sense that something is missing here. That there’s more to Lynch than the film cares to explore.
- 70Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganJon Nguyen’s carefully-calibrated ode to Lynch is in itself Lynchian, an essential picture for the director’s legion of fans.
- 70VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeNominally focused on the celebrated filmmaker’s lesser-known dabblings in fine art, The Art Life emerges as a more expansive study of Lynch’s creative impulses and preoccupations, as he relates first-hand the formative experiences that spurred and shaped a most unusual imagination.
- 70The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergMostly, the documentary is a fond portrait of how one man nurtured his artistic temperament and risked being misunderstood — sometimes by his own family.