Life Itself

2018 Directed by Dan Fogelman

Life will surprise you

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

Oscar Isaac Olivia Wilde Annette Bening Antonio Banderas Mandy Patinkin Jean Smart Olivia Cooke Sergio Peris-Mencheta Laia Costa Àlex Monner Isabel Durant Lorenza Izzo Samuel L. Jackson Jake Robinson Adrián Marrero Kya Kruse Charlie Thurston Gabby Bryan Jordana Rose Caitlin Carmichael Bryant Carroll Carmela Lloret Grace Song Micah Stock Tony Manna Yvonne Szacki Noah Gaynor Ed Crescimanni Zach Page Show All…

Alternative Titles

La vida misma, Seule la vie, Asta-i viata, 人生如戏, 生活本身

drama romance

118 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by David Sims ½ 10

like having your brain pulled out through your nostrils
Review by kai ★ 3

one of the films of 2018!
Review by adrianbalboa ★★ 8

collateral beauty i KNOW it’s you
Review by megan ½

worse than life itself
Review by Wes ★½ 9

watching this movie while having a cold and being bedridden is like having sleep paralysis and the demons that are haunting your peripheral vision are oscar isaac and olivia wilde in their pulp fiction cosplay doing the whip and nae nae and all you can do is silently scream and pray for the mercy of a bullet
Review by kai ★ 6

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

NEGATIVES:
- the entire first half
- oscar isaac
- fundamental misunderstanding of academia
- weird casual homophobia
- mansplaining bob dylan directly to the audience
- TWO DIFFERENT NARRATORS
- typo in the subtitles (this matters to me.)
- exploiting mental illness/suicide for shock value
- oscar isaac doing a keg stand
- depressed oscar isaac with a beard ruining my enjoyment of inside llewyn davis by association
- misogyny
- like this movie just straight up hates women
- women are either young & stupid or they’re mothers and they die tragically after imparting wisdom to men, who are allowed to be real people
- amazon product placement
POSITIVES:
- annette bening’s wardrobe
- oscar isaac can pay his rent this year!
- antonio banderas
Review by ryan 👻

'Oscar Isaac and folk music' is the new 'Ryan Gosling and neon'
Review by kevinyang ★ 16

Never before on screen have I seen filth so reliably spewed across multiple generations. This is an insult to the incredible cast, to the audience’s intelligence, and to anyone who has ever suffered trauma (or quite frankly, lived life in general). This is two hours of exasperating exposition, all doled out through monologues in which family trees are explicated with the subtlety of a guillotine. Actual serious issues are swept under the rug as the screenplay jacks off to its “interconnectivity” and idiot student thesis about life as an unreliable narrator. It isn’t until the last third when the film approaches anything resembling a story, but by then, it’s already warped itself into a manipulative, callous, and arrogant deformity. This…
Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★½ 26

WHOA!
I was reading reviews either this or last week that had me deciding maybe I shouldn’t even see this movie. WHAT!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?! Then I read another couple of reviews in the last couple of days that made me think I should check this out (I almost ditched this to see the new Jack White documentary).
Some things in the story might come off as irrelevant or flippant, but these things are mostly justified. It does get a bit messy and jarring with the different narrators. It mainly works, though. I was definitely taken on an emotional rollercoaster. The plot points seemed thoughtful as opposed to contrived, so it mainly worked for me. The narrative was playful, yet deadly serious. The…
Review by Patrick Willems ★½ 5

STOP TALKING ABOUT BOB DYLAN
Review by karen h. 1

i have never sighed in exasperation so many times in a single movie! zero stars!!!!!
Review by josh lewis 5

made it through the first chapter, about 40 minutes, probably the worst screenplay ever written but i guess i'll never find out for sure.

Recent reviews

Review by Barbie ★½ 2

images.app.goo.gl/5gCbcJLFLJZkSQam6
Review by Ava ★★★

Okay. So. I know that people hated this movie, I know, but honestly, I loved it. I really did. So fuck off, everyone. Allow me this one thing.
Review by oliveiramari ★★★★★

Fiquei impressionada com esse filme. O diretor sabe provocar mil reflexões durante todo o filme, além de ser carregado de referências. Um filme onde a arte se mistura com a vida, onde o próprio autor nos faz duvidar de qual seria “a versão” contada corretamente, mas que no fim a gente entende que é sobre essa dualidade que se trata o filme, e que se trata a vida. A vida em si é esse mix de coisas, de momentos que depende sempre da forma que a gente enxerga cada um deles. A vida em si é a soma de várias vidas de várias pessoas que passam por nós. E sim, ela é o nosso narrador menos confiável por não conseguirmos prever o que irá acontecer. Impecável!
Review by Van ★★½

hmm entao serei amada?
Review by mollisandra ★★½

a bit convoluted but I liked it, it was devastatingly sad but came out of it in the end in a way that let's you continue your day/life without a sinking feeling
Review by CINEPATICO

Vapuleada por la crítica, 'COMO LA VIDA MISMA' es un emocionante melodrama de historias cruzadas, bien armado, mejor narrado, que te engancha desde el minuto cero. Reparto de lujo para este film soberbio sobre lo que dejamos a pesar de nuestros errores. Hermosa.
Review by Ryan Jahn ½

If this is Life Itself I’m gonna kill myself
Review by Collin Taylor

The most self-indulgent garbage I’ve ever seen. Only got through the first 50 minutes. Un-fucking-believable.
Review by Drew Newman

Unable to finish
Review by theNickRowe

WHAT THE FFFUUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKMK!!!!!!!
Review by mckennadewolf ★★★★★

my tears will never dry for this movie
Review by Alex Britti ★★★

The things this movie has to say is really cool but I'm just not the biggest fan of how it's said. I believe the fault of it comes from the movie continually switching the main character.