The Dance of Reality

Released May 23, 2014

2h 10m

Biography

Drama

Fantasy

List

92%

65 Reviews

Tomatometer

82%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky presents a fanciful interpretation of his childhood, set against Chile's turbulent social and political environment.

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Critics Consensus

This long-overdue return from Alejandro Jodorowsky finds him just as overflowing with imagination -- and heart -- as fans have come to expect.

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Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

This is the work of someone coming to terms with their past, transmuting the traumas of childhood into the building blocks of adult awareness.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 23, 2015

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Kate Muir

Times (UK)

At first the film seems overly stagey, and those with little time for circus acts may find it irritating, but when Jodorowsky hits his surreal stride.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 20, 2015

Full Review

David Jenkins

Little White Lies

You may not know what to think of it, but you'll be glad that it exists.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 20, 2015

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Erick Estrada

Cinegarage

A monumental senseless circus that only its creator comprehends, Alejandro Jodorowsky has never done cinema for anyone else but himself. [Full review in Spanish]

Jul 12, 2022

Full Review

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Cinema

'Dance of Reality' has its moments of pure Jodorowsky. It will be up to each viewer to decide if that sentence is praise or pejorative.

Rated: 3.5/5

Dec 3, 2021

Full Review

Dustin Chang

Floating World

In this dream we called life, Jodorowsky is dreaming us, us playing part as audience. Who's dreaming Jodorowsky the filmmaker? Cinephiles of course. The Dance of Reality is his much softer, lyrical contemplation of life.

Feb 22, 2021

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Audience Member

Nice blend of emotional realism and magical realism.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

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dan m

I know foreign movies can be a bit on the bizarre side at times, well this one definitely fits in that category. It's a movie filled with obvious(and not so obvious) metaphors that just flew over my head. There was a scene featuring a very "chesty" opera singing chica giving Chilean communist Peter Saarsgard a golden shower to bring him back to life(which didn't look like it was fake at all by due to the full frontal angle), I was like yeah.. I think I'm done here.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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john m

Too much going on here for me to unpack in a brief review. I will say it has the scope of a hundred films put into one it seems and while at times, it's invigorating in that regard, it's also somewhat of a beautiful mess.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An introspective and intimate examination of childhood. A poetic fairy tale, visually astounding. Jodorowksy deconstructs and then rebuilds himself as a modern archetype .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

nefasto r

I don't think there are many people that liked "Endless Poetry" and did not like "The Dance of Reality", I don't think so, nevertheless I might be one of them. Well, is not that I did not like the latter, I just expected more. The mistake might have been watching them in opposite order. "Endless Poetry" simply contain more magic, more pizzazz, so what might have been a crescendo, became a "decreasendo".

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An amazing film this is Jodorowskys masterpiece in my opinion.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

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Alejandro Jodorowsky

Director

Brontis Jodorowsky

Jaime

Pamela Flores

Sara

Jeremias Herskovits

Alejandro as a child

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro as an Adult

Bastián Bodenhöfer

Carlos Ibáñes

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Synopsis

Cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky presents a fanciful interpretation of his childhood, set against Chile's turbulent social and political environment.

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Producer: Xavier Guerrero Yamamoto
Screenwriter: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Distributor: ABCKO Films
Genre: Biography, Drama, Fantasy
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (Theaters): May 23, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 18, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $165.9K
Runtime: 2h 10m

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