Critic Reviews

• Peter Debruge, Variety

  Alex Karpovsky picks at a navel better left ungazed.

• Sara Stewart, New York Post

  In an era when awkwardness is the new self-confidence, the director manages to be palpably neurotic without trying too hard.

• Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

  If it's all reasonably familiar indie-comedy terrain, it's delivered at a brisk, economical clip with plenty of laughs, and a series of running gags that keep getting funnier.

• Rachel Saltz, New York Times

  If only "Red Flag" were funnier and tighter and had a sharper idea about what it means to blur the lines between self-interrogation and self-absorption.

• Ian Buckwalter, NPR

  Karpovsky's anxiety-ridden shtick here combines the crippling doubt and self-loathing of many Woody Allen protagonists with the obnoxious solipsism of Larry David.

• Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

  Owing a debt to Albert Brooks' early comedies, "Red Flag" might be too much if it weren't just right.

• Greg Evans, Bloomberg News

  Starring roles in two of his own micro-budget indie films suggest a future that won't involve lattes or Lena Dunham.

• Nick McCarthy, Slant Magazine

  It surprisingly abandons its obvious meta elements and unfolds as a straightforward road-trip flick, opting for an exhibition of self-loathing rather than self-reflexivity.

• Scott Tobias, AV Club

  Modest, personal, and nicely proportioned, Red Flag resembles one of Hong Sang-soo's self-reflexive doodles about relationships and filmmaking-Oki's Movie, in particular-and it wisely doesn't take too big a bite.

• Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

  This could be a recipe for excessive self-indulgence, but the meta quality of "Red Flag" is entirely irrelevant to its low key charm and persistent irreverence -- anchored, as always, by Karpovsky's loopy screen presence.

• Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

  Karpovsky is an engaging screen presence, doing comic artistic neurosis in "Red Flag"..an explosion of work from an intriguing filmmaker.

• John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

  Establishes Karpovsky as the Woody Allen of the digital media generation: As he presents himself here, he is as self-absorbed as Allen, but his comfort with new technology results in a lo-fi video diary that the perfectionist Allen would eschew.

• Luke Y. Thompson, Houston Press

  ...your tolerance for Karpovsky himself, who has appeared in several Lena Dunham projects, will determine your appreciation; based on an informal survey, I find him more amusing than most.

• Kate Erbland, Film School Rejects

  When Red Flag really hits its stride, which happens somewhat late in its second act, it becomes the film it should be through and through -- a funny, well-observed, keenly acted feature about drama, trauma, and second chances.

Read all 14 critic reviews