The Congress | Rotten Tomatoes

The Congress

Released Aug 29, 2014

2 hr. 2 min.

Sci-Fi

List

72%

110 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

An aging actress agrees to preserve her digital likeness for a studio to use in any future films it likes.

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Critics Consensus

The Congress rises on the strength of Robin Wright's powerful performance, with enough ambitious storytelling and technical thrills to overcome its somewhat messy structure.

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Alec B

The film has some great and original concepts about the future of imagery and society but doesn't really develop them or the characters clearly enough. Honestly for this to have worked and be truly immersive, the whole thing would need to be around 4 hours long.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/13/23

Full Review

Jim M

The first half of this movie was pretty good but left me thinking "what are they going to do in the second half". Well, they decided to ruin the movie with animated, drug-induced bullshit.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/12/23

Full Review

Anne G

Robin Wright, as Robin Wright is an aging actress who is coerced into signing contract to own her complete digital likeness and presents so movies can be made without her using AI. She also has a son and daughter. She goes about her life after signing her likeness away, then a new technology comes along, making AI movies, irrelevant. Basically, then if people take drugs, they can be an experience anything so she is now going to be marketed as a drug. She goes to the Congress and becomes animated and stuck in an animation. It's pretty trippy and weird, then later is frozen and 40 years past. Eventually, she finds a way to become an animated to go back to a world, which is basically medicated, homeless people shuffling around , ultimately, she finds a way to find her son and it is pretty touching and I think I actually shut a tear at one point. I thought this was incredibly relevant today on the topic of AI and also very thought-provoking. The zombification of humanity through endless entertainment. This movie had a pretty profound effect on me and what made me want to go outside and being nature and daylight and live free of digital and screen stuff so I took a spiritual screen cleanse immediately after this movie for several days.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/21/23

Full Review

Poly A

This is more of a future-documentary, more real than real - META-SUPER-REAL! This movie is about how we are all selling ourselves, no matter what the activity we call our "job", and how we are selling our identities. Life and Society are whatever we make them, and the threat of physical violence will always outweigh rational thinking. The threat of physical loss and degradation is the real motivator for how society is constantly moving itself toward a false utopia based on self-delusion. THIS MOVIE DEFINES "META".

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/13/22

Full Review

4 Pots L

Could have been a good idea but the animation is SO. EFFING. HORRIFIC. that I couldn't watch it….

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/20/22

Full Review

nina m

If you don't like movies that have underlying meaning and require some thought, then you won't like this. It's somewhat complex and very unusual and I think could've been really spectacular but there were certain aspects that fell a bit flat and ended up conflating the themes it was trying to get across. The movie presents themes of corporatization of storytelling, the corruption of commercialism, the development and growth of power in the entertainment industry, the influence and negative effect of social media on consumerism and identity, all presented in a unique way. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't quite get the messages across as well as it could have. I think some people might find some of the purpose lost in the trippy animation. I like Robin Wright as an actor, I'm just not sure she was the best actor for this role, she doesn't necessarily have the widest range, particularly when it comes to emotion—she's great in melancholy parts (and there's a lot here), but outside of those her character just isn't always believable. It's a cool premise, just not executed all that well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Ari Folman

Director

Robin Wright

Self

Harvey Keitel

Al

Jon Hamm

Dylan Truliner

Paul Giamatti

Dr. Barker

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Aaron Wright

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Samuel B. Prime

Slant Magazine

The Congress is part live action and part Ralph Bakshi fever dream, but all nightmare. It paints a vision of the future where individuality and anything resembling free will is supplanted by delicious chemical cocktails and a candy-coated reversal.

Sep 24, 2019

Full Review

Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

The weighty ideas are welcome, but Folman dumps them on us in bucketfuls of alphabet soup.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 3, 2014

Full Review

David Denby

New Yorker

The anger drains out of the picture, and we watch in a state of passive appreciation and indifference.

Sep 5, 2014

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

Folman maintains an intelligible tone that is terrifyingly prophetic in exploring the impact of AI on actors, but unfortunately, his sci-fi dystopia loses its witty effect during the hallucinogenic and surreal animated journey. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Apr 10, 2024

Full Review

Giuseppe Sedia

Kino Mania

The Congress is anything but banal as a reflection on acting in digital age. Nevertheless, the hard landing Folman bludgeoned audiences with in his previous movie is certainly more striking and profound than the hybrid, dreamlike pillow offered [here]

Rated: 2/5

Mar 8, 2024

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Cinema

Based on the novel 'The Futurist Congress' by Stanislaw Lem, Folman updates and adapts the novel into two parts, one that works (animation) and one that doesn't (live-action).

Rated: 3/5

Oct 31, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

An aging actress agrees to preserve her digital likeness for a studio to use in any future films it likes.

Director: Ari Folman
Screenwriter: Ari Folman
Distributor: Drafthouse Films
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 29, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $137.8K

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