Most critics rate Brazil highly, and the praise clusters in one place: Gilliam’s visual invention. Review after review picks out the retro-futurist design, the cluttered sets and ducting, and the way a bureaucratic dystopia is made funny and frightening at the same time. The satire of paperwork and impersonal systems is judged to have aged well, and several later reviews call it prescient. Jonathan Pryce’s Sam Lowry is widely admired, and Robert De Niro’s small turn as the rogue heating engineer is mentioned again and again.
The reservations are almost all about story. The New York Times finds the plot thin, RogerEbert.com finds the narrative confusing even after two viewings, and Time Out thinks the weaknesses show halfway through and leave a glittering novelty. There are no outright negatives and the spread is narrow at the top, but the strongest praise comes from critics revisiting the film years later; the first-run reviews are warmer about the vision than about the shape.
E
Empire
1 January 2000 · Adam Smith
90*
Gilliam's dystopian epic remains among his best, blending his trademark visual inventiveness with a vicious brand of social satire. Unique and essential.
Praises Gilliam's 1985 film as a wondrous magnum opus that blends comic, creative, and moving elements to critique inequality and bureaucracy. Singles out its stunning visual power, emotional depth through romance and grief, and inventive use of performers and influences from other films.
The critic calls Brazil the greatest movie ever made about bureaucratic inefficiency, praising Gilliam's ability to depict it through comically threatening absurdism in a dystopian world resembling an outmoded past. He singles out the film's meticulous attention to detail in everyday absurdities, such as the rogue heating engineer scene with Robert De Niro.
The critic calls Brazil a timeless masterpiece whose power and resonance have only grown, becoming less surreal and more sharply satirical over time. He singles out its visual density and the way repeated viewings reveal new details, especially in the new Blu-ray transfer, alongside its blend of humour, satire and a memorably sad happy ending.
The review praises Gilliam's blackly comic dystopian satire, which parodies 1984 in a world of bureaucratic mismanagement and repression. It highlights the intricate plotting, inventive visuals and strong performances, especially from Jonathan Pryce and Ian Holm.
Examines Brazil as a dystopian vision still relevant today, highlighting its critique of bureaucracy and totalitarianism. Focuses on Gilliam's singular vision and the film's enduring power as both fantasy and warning.
The critic calls it a brilliant, exhausting, savagely funny post-Orwellian satire like watching the contents of Gilliam’s head erupt in public. It is richly visionary even if the bleak vision requires cold compresses afterward.
Brazil delivers a chillingly hilarious vision of a near-future bureaucratic dystopia where the protagonist is crushed by the system he questions. The review highlights the brilliant supporting cast, Pryce’s comic performance, and De Niro’s delightful turn in a small role.
The critic describes it as a melancholy, joke-ridden retro-futurist fantasy like a stoned, slapstick 1984, a nightmare comedy where the comedy is part of the nightmarishness. Gilliam’s vision is an organic achievement on screen despite episodes that blur and a film that is both torpid and frantic.
The critic calls it a jaunty, wittily observed vision of a bleak future and a superb example of comedy underscoring serious ideas. The satirical and cautionary impulses work beautifully together despite a thin plot.
The film offers a psychedelic, anarchic variation on Orwell’s 1984, with elaborate sets and effects but a confusing narrative that lacks discipline. Ebert praises individual striking images and a simple Chaplin-like scene while noting the story is hard to follow even after two viewings.
The film is realized with visual imagination and sparky humour, though plot weaknesses become apparent halfway through. Gilliam fuses terror and comedy brilliantly in key scenes, but elsewhere the story reduces the film to a glittering novelty.
The critic hails Gilliam's dystopian satire as a prescient masterpiece that remains relevant for its depiction of bureaucracy, consumerism, and authoritarianism in a paranoid society. Production design and absurdist humor are singled out as elevating the film's dark comedy and visual imagination.
The critic praises Gilliam's visionary dystopia as prescient and influential, highlighting its inventive visuals, retro-futuristic design, and strong performances, especially Jonathan Pryce's career-defining turn as Sam Lowry.
The critic calls it the quintessential Terry Gilliam film, an imaginative work of art with stunning visuals and sets that feels like an amazing adventure despite its dark story. They single out the tremendous atmosphere and witty script that balances the monstrous elements with humanity.
The critic calls Brazil one of the most compelling depictions of Orwellian sci-fascism, praising its masterful satire of bureaucracy and the dehumanizing effects of impersonal systems. The film's Expressionist world-building and themes of dreams versus oppressive reality are highlighted as enduring strengths.
Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate
