Synopsis
In 1973, a young gallery assistant goes on a wild adventure behind the scenes as he helps aging genius Salvador Dali prepare for a big show in New York.
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Cast
- Ben KingsleySalvador Dalí
- Barbara SukowaGala Dalí
- Christopher BrineyJames
- Rupert GravesCaptain Moore
- Andreja PejićAmanda Lear
- Suki WaterhouseGinesta
- Ezra MillerYoung Salvador Dalí
- Mark McKennaAlice Cooper
- Merce RibotRosa
Recommendations
- 80
Variety
It’s both a highly entertaining movie and, by the end, a haunting one. It revels in Dalí’s artifice even as it mercilessly peels away his layers. - 80
TheWrap
It’s based on historical facts and real-life characters, yet it feels timeless and allegorical. It’s indisputably Harron’s best, and she deftly locates stately classicism amid the crass and the banal, and vice versa. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Mary Harron’s Dalíland revolves around the titular Surrealist, played with restraint and dignity by Ben Kingsley, while gently nudging the spotlight in the direction of his complicated wife/muse Gala, a role in which Barbara Sukowa more than earns the movie’s attention. - 70
Film Threat
It raises interesting questions about cults of personality, our inability to deal with aging, and how we can use the people around us to get what we want. That’s not exactly surrealism, nor is it realism. It’s just Hollywood. - 50
IndieWire
For all its promises of an inside look into the Dalís’ lifestyle, the film never does much more than document it. - 50
Screen Daily
Daliland dials up the actorly pyrotechnics, but it’s all spectacle without insight, failing to lay a foundation for why this long-running marriage, despite its volatility, endured. - 42
The Playlist
Mary Harron is too good a director to make a drab, conventional biopic, so it’s disappointing to report that with Dalíland, she’s done just that. It’s not a complete waste, and she manages to insert a handful of distinctive flourishes and memorable characters. But the picture never escapes the box it’s been placed in or transcends a key, fundamental error in its conception.
