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The Atomic Cafe deconstructs the beginnings of the Nuclear Age with pitch-black humor and a dread-inducing view of history.
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All Critics (27) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (1)
The Atomic Cafe is a chilling memory of life in the first years under the mushroom umbrella. May 8, 2019 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
The Atomic Cafe is a chilling memory of life in the first years under the mushroom umbrella.
Roger Ebert
Viewers old enough to remember "duck and cover" drills and homemade fallout shelters (and suits!) will get a special charge out of "Atomic's" many archival gems. August 10, 2018 | Full Review…
Viewers old enough to remember "duck and cover" drills and homemade fallout shelters (and suits!) will get a special charge out of "Atomic's" many archival gems.
Gary Goldstein
The Atomic Café at times feels like an essay film, but its points come across cumulatively, subtly. July 31, 2018 | Full Review…
The Atomic Café at times feels like an essay film, but its points come across cumulatively, subtly.
Bilge Ebiri
The film fails to offer even the barest social context for its material. February 9, 2006 | Full Review…
The film fails to offer even the barest social context for its material.
Geoff Andrew
Deserves national attention. August 30, 2004 | Full Review…
Deserves national attention.
Vincent Canby
Despite its supremely dark subject matter (or maybe partly because of it), The Atomic Cafe is one of the funniest documentaries ever made. February 14, 2020 | Full Review…
Despite its supremely dark subject matter (or maybe partly because of it), The Atomic Cafe is one of the funniest documentaries ever made.
Dan Schindel
While some of the specific elements of The Atomic Cafe were already passe at the time of the film's release in 1982, the prevailing spirit of Loader and the Raffertys' documentary remains just as potent. December 20, 2018 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
While some of the specific elements of The Atomic Cafe were already passe at the time of the film's release in 1982, the prevailing spirit of Loader and the Raffertys' documentary remains just as potent.
Andrew Parker
The Atomic Cafe provokes a surprising number of laughs, from a soundtrack of awe-inspiringly tasteless '50s pop songs to its extracts of horribly acted army films warning of Commies on the home front. October 10, 2018 | Full Review…
The Atomic Cafe provokes a surprising number of laughs, from a soundtrack of awe-inspiringly tasteless '50s pop songs to its extracts of horribly acted army films warning of Commies on the home front.
Joule Zelman
The Atomic Cafe is a true horror comedy, with a wealth of death's-head humor that even Dr. Strangelove can't match. September 27, 2018 | Full Review…
The Atomic Cafe is a true horror comedy, with a wealth of death's-head humor that even Dr. Strangelove can't match.
Richard von Busack
Compilation essay film of the propaganda celebration of the nuclear age, both in cartoonish and apocalyptic form... So long as there are unstable madmen with nuclear codes clutched in their fists, fear rightfully abides. September 21, 2018 | Rating: 10/10 | Full Review…
Compilation essay film of the propaganda celebration of the nuclear age, both in cartoonish and apocalyptic form... So long as there are unstable madmen with nuclear codes clutched in their fists, fear rightfully abides.
Ray Pride
As funny as it is frightening, The Atomic Cafe is a genius, tongue-in-cheek retrospective of a far less cynical time, and the lies that the government used at the time to justify their new power. August 21, 2018 | Rating: 10/10 | Full Review…
As funny as it is frightening, The Atomic Cafe is a genius, tongue-in-cheek retrospective of a far less cynical time, and the lies that the government used at the time to justify their new power.
Norman Gidney
It's often hilarious and frightening, because of how little we understood about atomic energy and how cheerfully the public accepted its terrors... The Atomic Café's half-life is far from over. August 9, 2018 | Full Review…
It's often hilarious and frightening, because of how little we understood about atomic energy and how cheerfully the public accepted its terrors... The Atomic Café's half-life is far from over.
Sherilyn Connelly
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