72
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenKoyaanisqatsi is enraged with modern societal convention, but still expresses awe of the spontaneous, incidental poetry that can exist despite invisible oppression.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayReggio has a flair for iconography, and whatever external baggage Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi may carry, they should be admired for their vivid, astonishing illustrations of humanity consuming itself in clouds of its own smoke and debris.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineKoyaanisqatsi asks the viewers to ponder their relationship to a social system that has come to dominate them rather than serve them. Much of the film is exhilarating and beautiful in a way that may seem counterproductive to that end. But the cumulative effect is more meditative than frightening. It's not a world-shaking film, but it is an affecting one.
- 80SlateSeth StevensonSlateSeth StevensonThere are utterly transcendent moments amid this 87-minute music video. It’s all about that pumping, hypnotic, emotionally-gripping Philip Glass vibe.
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenThe worlds of the natural and the artificial are compared and contrasted in this non-narrative visual orgy.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertKoyaanisqatsi is an impressive visual and listening experience, that Reggio and Glass have made wonderful pictures and sounds, and that this film is a curious throwback to the 1960s, when it would have been a short subject to be viewed through a marijuana haze. Far out.
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyKoyaanisqatsi is an oddball and - if one is willing to put up with a certain amount of solemn picturesqueness - entertaining trip.
- 60Koyaanisqatsi is at first awe-inspiring with its sweeping aerial wilderness photography. It becomes depressing when the phone lines, factories, and nuke plants spring up. The pic then runs the risk of boring audiences with shot after glossy shot of man’s commercial hack job on the land and his resulting misery.
- 50Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyAn agoraphobic's nightmare, it's a condescending view, and maybe one that's totally off base. [23 Sep 1983, p.21]
- 40Time OutTime OutAt once maudlin and doggedly sarcastic, the film gives you the uncomfortable sensation of being condescended to by an idiot; it is, transparently, a product of the advanced technology it purports to despise.