The Congress

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The Congress

Released Aug 29, 2014

2h 2m

Sci-Fi

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71%

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108 Reviews

53%

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5,000+ Ratings

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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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

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David Denby

The New Yorker

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

Sep 5, 2014

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JD Duran

InSession Film

The Congress isn’t for everyone but the animation is beautiful and the ideas that this film raises is provocative. Robin Wright carries the film well and overall, this is a film we’d recommend.

Rated: A-

Aug 19, 2024

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

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mor c

Me malviaje y ni siquiera consumo

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/29/24

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Bryan P

Harvey Keitel is no good in this, but its brief. Aside from that and maybe a few other goofy things that if you question too hard it ruins everything... this movie rules.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/12/24

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Orin D

I read Lem's SciFi masterpiece long ago and admired it greatly. This mishmash of live action and boring animation does the book a great disservice. Some fine acting talent is wasted is this debacle. My wife made us watch it until the end, which I thought would never arrive.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

06/11/24

Full Review

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

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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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Synopsis

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

Director: Ari Folman
Producer: Reinhard Brundig, Sébastien Delloye, Piotr Dzięcioł, Diana Elbaum
Screenwriter: Ari Folman
Distributor: Drafthouse Films
Production Co: Pandora Filmproduktion, Sikhya Entertainment, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Liverpool Co., Ltd., ARP Sélection, Entre Chien et Loup, Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej, Canal+ Polska, Pôle Image de Liège, Channel 10, Paul Thiltges Distributions, Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Cinemorphic, Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF), Instytucja Filmowa Silesia-Film, ARD Degeto Film, Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), Luxembourg Film Fund, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Opus Film, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), Casa Kafka Pictures Movie Tax Shelter Empowered by Belfius, Cinéfinance Tax Shelter, Belgacom, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bridgit Folman Film Gang, Israel Film Fund, France 2 Cinéma, MEDIA Programme of the European Union
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
Runtime: 2h 2m

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