Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" gave the movie four stars and called it "a movie with brains, indignation, irony and idealism". A.O Scott of "The New York Times" wrote "what makes "The Barbarian Invasions" much more than a facile exercise in generational conflict is that Denys Arcand, who wrote and directed it, has a sense of history that is as acute as it is playful", adding "The rapprochement between Remy and Sebastien is beautiful to watch" and Marie-Josée Croze's "spooky, melancholy intensity darkens the mood of buoyant sentimentality". "Entertainment Weekly"'s Owen Glieberman gave the film a B-, noting Rémy's hedonism. David Denby of "The New Yorker" gave credit to Stéphane Rousseau for "a fascinatingly minimal performance". Jonathan Romney of "The Independent" wrote "The film has its pros and cons, but you can't fault it for ambition: it not only muses on life and death, but also undertakes fairly comprehensive philosophical soundings of the way the world is today". Romney added Croze "has simply the most nuanced presence here: thoughtful, introspective, with a reassuring warmth and lack of cartoonishness". Peter Bradshaw, writing for "The Guardian", disdained the movie, calling it "grotesquely overpraised", "shot through with middlebrow sophistication, boorish cynicism, unfunny satire, a dash of fatuous anti-Americanism and unthinkingly reactionary sexual politics". English Professor Peter Brunette wrote "its analysis of this state of affairs is all too often annoyingly rhetorical and, finally, altogether too facile".