Garrone takes care to add authenticity to the costumes and sets, but the three fantastic tales lack grace and become hopelessly boring in their macabre sense of irony. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 21, 2025

Though the film is decidedly not for children, it remains almost revisionist in its faithfully disturbing origins.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 15, 2022

Garrone's accomplishment follows in the footsteps of classic Italian auteurs, a carnivalesque metaphor on a grand scale with superb visual elements we used to see from directors like Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 30, 2020

Tale of Tales feels like David Cronenberg hijacked the set of Faerie Tale Theatre with an EXistenZ gristle gun. If only there was some more shape to this thing! Too many scenes struggle on awkwardly, like a slain animal that doesn't know it's dead yet.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 5, 2019

A wildly imaginative, erotic, and at times nightmarish slice of adult high fantasy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2019

Tale of Tales is a unique vision that transports you into a magical, dangerous parallel fantasy world that's grotesque, beautiful, extraordinary, strange, where familiar things are distorted and anything imaginable is possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 21, 2019

Filled with remarkable imagery and singular, interweaving fairy tales, Tale of Tales is the fabulously weird adult fantasy English language debut of Gommorah writer/director Matteo Garrone

Full Review | Feb 2, 2019

Garrone revels in outing the rhetoric and ironies of his stories through a maverick approach to cinematography and the overall geography of his worlds.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2018

These finely spun tales are not, repeat not, child's play.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

While it's lovely to look at and the likes of Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Shirley Henderson do their valiant best, it's all a bit of a codmedieval tangle.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2017

These are stories that should haunt your dreams; instead, they're weird but temporary diversions.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2017

Tale of Tales is deliciously dark and filled with symbolism.

Full Review | Jun 21, 2017

Even the beautiful imagery, mise en scene and eccentricities couldn't keep me invested in the overall piece.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2017

Tale of Tales emerges as blissfully enjoyable, and its unevenness becomes part of the wildness of the ride.

Full Review | Dec 31, 2016

We're in the world of fairy tales, and one of the pleasures here, for me, was to be reminded how enjoyable it is. Like a good new song from an out-of-fashion rock star, the film rekindles affection for a whole body of work.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2016

Tale of Tales is great eye candy, and the awe-inspiring shots from Puglia's octagonal Castel del Monte and the moss-covered forest of Lazio's Bosco del Sasseto will surely leave you planning your next vacation to the south of Italy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 30, 2016

[UPDATED 2025 REVIEW] A series of comparatively pat resolutions and an abrupt conclusion prevent this from soaring even higher -- even so, there’s still much to recommend.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2016

Dark, gory and gruesome, this isn't kids' stuff. As a work of gothic imagination, it's a rare treat.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2016

Well-made and proudly weird, this collection of fairy tales is missing something; it could have been funny, sexy, or thrilling, but instead it's clinical, like spying on bugs under a microscope.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 1, 2016

A treat for the eyes, the heart and possibly even the soul.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jun 24, 2016