Critics reviews

There are some moments that can feel slightly repetitive, though these are fleeting and soon forgotten when the finale begins frightfully unfurling before you. As we get a full glimpse of what the film has been gently threading together, it becomes something quite unsettling precisely because of how understated it all is.

We Might As Well Be Dead observes the toxicity of the herd mentality. 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, and how easy the “other” can be ostracised.

We Might As Well Be Dead presents itself initially as a whodunit, but devolves into a deep examination of the human psyche and the innate will to survive.

We Might As Well Be Dead isn’t a slam dunk; much of this is well-trod material, a familiar allegorical construct critiquing well-established societal ills. But the cast is uniformly excellent, and anchoring it all is Iacob, turning in another fine performance after several collaborations with Radu Jude...

Sinelnikova is putting forward deliberate quirk and oddness, as well as many rich allusions and references.... Like many precocious debut films, there’s a sense that the story’s boundaries are elastic enough to include and account for anything, to the work’s success and also to its detriment.

An ace feature debut from the director Natalia Sinelnikova, the deadpan comedy feels like a cousin to works by Yorgos Lanthimos, an absurdist equally attentive to how confinement breeds fear and fear breeds barbarity.

We Might As Well Be Dead may be the most impressive movie made by a college student since John Carpenter's Dark Star. If Sinelnikova can create a world this convincing on a college budget, I eagerly await to see what she might achieve with more traditional filmmaking resources.

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 works on several levels and contains a number of apt metaphors for the current situation [war in Ukraine] ... At its most profound, We Might as Well Be Dead offers astute social criticism.

[I]t’s a strikingly original, elegantly shot and designed and admirably controlled dystopian satire about the world’s current retreat from rational discourse towards paranoia-fuelled tribalism.