SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Christopher Galasso Every so often, a film is made that allows the viewer to take his or her own life and experiences into consideration while watching. After Life, a film about a place beyond death where the recently deceased are tasked with choosing a memory in which to spend the rest of eternity, is that kind of film. Shot in pseudo-documentary style with actors and non-actors alike, many of the film's characters spend a lot of time thinking about the best and worst times of their lives.Simple, almost beautifully drab visuals never pull from the movie's main focus, figuring out what experience had the most meaning in one's life. These stories are sometimes scripted and sometimes real memories told by real people, ranging from a fun trip to Disney Land to dancing as a little girl. The simplicity of this film won't knock your socks off with visual appeal, but the weight of its message will surely stick with you long after viewing, while you think about what memory you might choose to spend the rest of time reliving.

KineticSeoul Some might find the premise of this movie to be ridiculous, but the premise isn't the main part of this movie although it seems like it was trying to take itself seriously. The premise is about a normal looking building where dead people gather and alive in spirit and there is counselors and trainee that will help the people that died choose one memory that they will take with them for all of eternity. So basically the dead spirits are in a hotel until they pick a memory and move on. Also the memory is shown to the spirits through videotapes. I found it sort of humorous that the dead people in this are all Japanese with Japanese counselors and trainee and they all only speak Japanese and where clothes that look like it's from the 80's although there is a reason behind the way they are dressed, but like I said the premise is part of it, a lot of it but still part of it. The movie sort of feels like a documentary with interviews of the dead during part of the after life although the premise is ridiculous and also since there is almost no music it plays a big factor in it. This movie has it's target audience, mainly because of it's artsy style but isn't for everyone. I sort of found this movie to be a bit tedious at times and although the life stories of the dead people was believable for the most part but it was boring to listen to. It's like your when your on a bus, train or even on a plane where some old people constantly ramble on and on and just won't stop talking about their past. In fact in the movie "Airplane!" the people that hear the protagonist's story killed themselves out of boredom. I wouldn't go that extreme but it was boring to watch these interviews, plus the protagonist's life story in "Airplane!" had some humor in it. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching artsy films that isn't really for the mainstream, however I didn't enjoy this movie all that much. Perhaps I am missing something because despite the positive reviews this movie has been getting, I didn't think it was that great. On a positive note this movie does somewhat makes you reflect on certain parts of your life and the humanistic aspects is done pretty well. The movie moves very slowly but sometimes it can be slightly absorbing, but the only thing that kept me watching was to find out the ending and that was the main reason. This film has some good elements but it just isn't utilized that well, I probably won't be seeing this movie again seeing how I struggled while watching it the first time. But like I said this movie has it's target audience, I just wasn't really one of them.6.5/10

akkoziol The premise of this movie is quite simple: If before you are allowed to pass into heaven you had to live out one memory from your life forever, what memory would it be? Sounds simple enough, but is it? The span and breadth of experiences we go through in our lives, the moments, the good, the bad, when we think about it, a lot of stuff happens to us so imagine having to review your whole life and find one time or memory of life that you had and make it the memory you take with you to heaven forever. What WOULD you choose? Not so easy after all, hm? Our characters find that they are only given about a week to go about this quite monumental task and this is where the story begins. We are introduced to our counselors at the so called way-station between earth and heaven who's job it is to help the dead along to heaven. We see the careful interplay between the young, the middle-aged, and the old play out in a very patient manner as each person is tasked with rifling through their memories with a little bit of help for those a bit ambiguous about their former lives. Some find the process quite hard while others are easily able to figure things out. As in real life, we begin to see the examination of life's principle tenet that who we are is really a summation of how we live. One thing I appreciated about this movie is that, other than the main actors, the wayfaring actors are just regular people with no acting skills and you just fall in love with their idiosyncrasies, quirks, and genuine reactions. You can very much imagine yourself in their shoes. This is a very simple movie that examines a very deep question. So simple, it's brilliant.

rooprect The underlying premise and theme of this film is extremely thought-provoking. Within the first 20 minutes, your brain will light up like a Christmas tree as you think of the implications and how you would react in a similar situation. It has the magical ability to awaken nostalgic memories of your own, and several times I had to pause the film so that I could indulge my own private thoughts for a while. Hats off to the director/writer for achieving the necessary balance between fantasy and realism (i.e., taking you to a surreal place whilst not destroying the human perspective).But the downside... I feel that the director failed to cultivate some of the excellent philosophies which were barely touched upon. This could have been accomplished with more dialogue. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of *talking* in the movie, but it's mostly anecdotal (people wistfully reminiscing about the past). There wasn't enough analysis and barely any *dialogue* (people communicating with each other).Without ruining anything, I'll give you one example. The premise is, of course, "if you had to pick one memory to relive forever, which would you choose?" One character simply refuses to pick. This is brilliant. As soon as he takes his position, which he does in the first 10 minutes of the film, it woke me up and made me wonder why he would choose this unconventional act of defiance.But much to my disappointment, this central theme is abandoned. The character is hardly seen again. He does deliver an interesting monologue towards the end which is encapsulated in a single powerful statement he says (I won't tell you what it is). But I couldn't help feeling as if the director didn't really follow through with his philosophy.Perhaps that was the intent of the director: to present us only with fragments so that we may ponder the philosophy ourselves. But that approach somewhat betrays the nature of art. Art, I believe, should do its best to communicate a complete idea, and *then* open up the floor for discussion. Anything less is a mere Rorshach test. Or whatever you call those inkblot thingees that psychologists use to probe your mind.As you can probably guess, I'm not a big fan of the Minimalist movement.Another gripe... Some of the interesting philosophical points were shoved aside to make room for the romantic sub-plot, which I found to be a bit forced and unbelievable. I would have preferred to see the director stick to the heavier issues. If this is truly a film about deep spirituality, why dedicate so much time to a teenage girl's crush on a guy?So my overall criticism is that there wasn't enough substance presented. I admit there IS the possibility that the dialogue/philosophy I craved was lost in translation. It is possible that the English subtitles didn't convey the philosophy inherent in the original Japanese. That's been known to happen.But still, I think this film could have truly benefited by a good old fashioned Shakespearian soliloquy, like Hamlet Act III Sc 1, to help clarify the director's message.Well, here I've wasted my whole review babbling about philosophy, and I haven't touched upon the technical merits of this film. Let me just wrap up by reiterating that THIS IS A GOOD FILM despite my criticism. I love the way the director achieved a surreal feeling without using gimmicky, schlocky clichés like pearly gates and angels and pixie dust. Everything about the production is firmly rooted in reality despite the very unrealistic nature, and that achieves a very bizarre and clever paradox. Also there's no music at all. It's an original, I'll definitely give it that! Give it a whirl. I'll probably watch it a 2nd time myself.