The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Gonzalez sees the film as a wicked, sharply critical portrait of bourgeois dependence and social hypocrisy. He praises Buñuel’s darkly comic, sadistic staging of the guests’ confinement and unraveling.

Harris presents Buñuel’s surrealist film as a timeless success. The standfirst singles out its surrealist premise of aristocrats unable to leave a room.

Mackie praises the film as a funny, vicious dissection of civilisation. He singles out its surreal juxtapositions, barbed dialogue and collapsing pomposity as the source of its comic bite.

The review is strongly positive, describing Buñuel’s film as brilliant and disconcertingly funny. It singles out the surrealist joke at the heart of the premise for praise.

Parkinson describes the film as a searing, pessimistic condemnation of bourgeois convention and morality. He praises its brilliantly played cast and the way the nightmare dinner party conveys its unsettling argument.

Parkinson finds the film defiantly surreal and difficult to decipher, but ultimately a superb example of its kind. He praises its satirical exposure of bourgeois privilege and the primal instincts beneath social manners.

The critic finds the film a sharp, entertaining broadside against social hypocrisy and religion. He praises Buñuel’s surreal humor and the way repeated events expose the guests’ stilted lives.

The review finds the film an unusual, powerful, and solid dreamlike parable. It especially praises the ensemble acting and Gabriel Figueroa’s cinematography.

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Dollar praises the release as a showcase for Buñuel’s darkly comic, surreal style. He singles out the trapped dinner guests’ descent into chaos and the film’s strange, unsettling imagery.

Mullaney finds the surrealist satire compelling and more than watchable, despite its unclear logic. She especially praises the film’s striking photography, expressive faces, and use of shadows.