"The film is outstanding at observing the interplay and competitiveness among three roommates....There's plenty to savor, beginning with SAndler's performance."
Variety - Todd McCarthy (07/24/2009)
4.5 stars out of 5 -- "This comedy about comedians, mistakes and mortality is as constantly engaging and reliably hilarious as you'd expect from Apatow..."
Box Office (07/29/2009)
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "The thing about FUNNY PEOPLE is that it's a real movie. That means carefully written dialogue and carefully placed supporting performances -- and it's about something."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (07/29/2009)
"The stand-up scenes, with their bad lighting and air of flop-sweat, have the sting of truth....[Adam Sandler is] the movie's biggest draw and its most effective and powerful presence."
New York Times - Manohla Dargis (07/31/2009)
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[M]ost will probably be riveted by its twists and turns and interactions of its complex characters....If you let yourself be transported along for the leisurely ride, the experience is, at times, even sublime."
USA Today - Claudia Puig (07/31/2009)
"[T]remendously funny....The films Apatow writes and directs double as moral inquiries." -- Grade: B
A.V. Club - Keith Phipps (07/30/2009)
"It works because it doesn't feel like it is trying to be funny...as a result it really is."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (07/29/2009)
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "It's the work of a major talent. Apatow scores by crafting the film equivalent of a stand-up routine that encompasses the joy, pain, anger, loneliness and aching doubt that go into making an audience laugh."
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers (07/30/2009)
"Apatow has fully realized his perspective on the world....Apatow is at his best in letting the exchanges between the men rest for several cumulative, complicated beats longer than he has before..."
Movieline - Michelle Orange (07/29/2009)
4 stars out of 5 -- "FUNNY PEOPLE is Apatow's best yet, an artistic triumph worthy of awards."
Total Film - Jamie Graham (08/11/2009)