Critic Reviews

• Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

  It's all kind of cute. Maybe a little too cute, but it does have a nice circle-of-life ending.

• Ted Scheinman, Village Voice

  The film itself is so charming that you almost forget to ask whether these people truly deserve our empathy.

• Michael Atkinson, Time Out New York

  The time-killing universe Byington has created makes sure we never forget how absurd he thinks the whole movie is. Fun for him, perhaps.

• David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle

  American cinema has been churning out slacker movies for what seems like eons, so it's refreshing to report that Somebody Up There Likes Me enlivens the genre with a welcome breath of imagination, wit and charm.

• Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

  Words such as offbeat, charming or, Lord help us, quirky are wildly overused and yet this is exactly the kind of film to which they best apply.

• Stephen Dalton, Hollywood Reporter

  Highly original and delightfully unorthodox.

• Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics

  An easy going family comedy featuring odd people who turn out to be just like us.

• Marc Mohan, Oregonian

  Deadpan absurdity and an insistently whimsical score only add to the cookie-cutter feel, but the performances are appealing enough.

• Leah Churner, Austin Chronicle

  Somebody is nihilistic, misanthropic, and weirdly relaxing. I've never seen anything like it.

• Matthew Odam, Austin American-Statesman

  Somebody Up There Likes Me is a poignant and at times trying work of personal art that will likely mean different things to different people. Like its director, it seems to reflect more than it reveals.

• Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine

  Bob Byington's perspective may be above it all, but that doesn't quite account for the shades of melancholy that pop up unexpectedly in lines of dialogue and in some of the performances.

• Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com

  The film never quite comes together enough to get over the sense that it's a comedy made by people who think they're too cool to laugh but it comes close.

• Ted Scheinman, L.A. Weekly

  The film itself is so charming that you almost forget to ask whether these people truly deserve our empathy.

• Caitlin Colford, Paste Magazine

  Somebody Up There Likes Me is an entertaining film with a strong artistic exertion and a resilient attention to detail, making for a memorable seventy-five minutes thanks to its outlandish quirk and well-defined characters.

• Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out Chicago

  There's talent here, but the goal seems to be proving that everyone involved is too cool to make an actual movie.

• Edward Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly

  I didn't find Somebody Up There Likes Me as funny as others seem to, but I was fascinated enough by the curious offering to watch it twice.

• Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

  In the hands of another filmmaker, Byington's approach might come across as gimmicky or overly precious. Instead, Somebody Up There Likes Me retains a playfully philosophical edge.

• Matt Pais, RedEye

  One of the funnier movies you can shrug off.

• Mike D'Angelo, AV Club

  A film distinguished entirely by its stubborn refusal to engage viewers in any way whatsoever.

Read all 19 critic reviews