We Might as Well Be Dead

The images are artfully crafted, but the narrative lacks momentum.

Sinelnikova has crafted one of the year's finest international features.

One of the most provocative, razor-sharp and wickedly funny satires since Triangle of Sadness and The Lobster.

We Might As Well Be Dead bubbles with the nihilism inherent to its title, and the pitch-black humor that mindset can engender.

We Might As Well Be Dead skewers our own potential for us all to fall prey to paranoia. All the more terrifying is that, as we see over and over again, we likely won’t heed its warning.

Chock full of social commentary, We Might As Well Be Dead is an impressive debut from director Sinelnikova.

Through it all - this surprisingly subtle lesson about fractured social cohesion - there runs a thread of very dry, bitter humour. It feels completely appropriate, too, to quietly laugh at some of this weird, irrational, perceived vulnerability.

Blessed with self-awareness, it’s an uncomfortable reflection on the human condition and how easily people are emboldened by a feeling of moral superiority and righteousness, how easily free will is seen to be a threat...

The film is able to sneak up on viewers with its dark humor while the social commentary hit hard. Almost light at times, the script deals with serious issues. It effortlessly weaves between genres while never losing sight of what it is trying to say.

A stinging social comedy. Director/cowriter Natalia Sinelnikova films everything with a sterile, detached eye—there are some terrifically framed compositions—that reveal the crucible of St. Phoebus as a hotbed for xenophobia.