79
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA fascinating if problematic early film from Stanley Kubrick, perhaps the most obsessive of the great auteurs of the 1960s, made just on the cusp of a run of cinematic masterpieces.
- 100Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNabokov’s satire is sensationally cast, with Winters and Sellers delivering some of their best work ever.
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonBrilliant adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 20th Century comic-erotic classic. [08 Jul 2005, p.C2]
- 90The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelWild, marvelously enjoyable comedy, adapted from Nabokov's novel.
- 80The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherThis is not the novel Lolita, but it is a provocative sort of film.
- 75Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrWhere Nabokov was witty, Kubrick is sometimes merely snide, but fine performances (particularly from Peter Sellers, as the ominous Clare Quilty) cover most of the rough spots.
- Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s wicked, witty hymn to forbidden love loses some bite in the journey from novel to the screen, but it’s got its plummy pleasures, including a wonderfully subtle James Mason as Humbert Humbert, obsessed with the delicious Sue Lyon as the 14-year-old Lolita (bumped up from 12 in the book), and a marvelously blowzy Shelley Winters, hilarious as Lolita’s sexually voracious mom.
- 70Time OutTime OutKubrick manages to handle the moral and psychological nuances with surprising lucidity, but the decision to indulge Peter Sellers' gift for mimickry in the role of Quilty tends to scupper the movie's tone. Fascinating, nevertheless.
- 50Village VoiceAndrew SarrisVillage VoiceAndrew SarrisKubrick goes through the motions with a hula hoop and the munching of potato chips, but there is nothing intuitive or abandoned about the man-nymphet relationship. The Director's heart is apparently elsewhere. [05 Jul 1962, p.11]