Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 86% of seven surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 6.6/10.[6] Metacritic rated it 61/100 based on seven reviews.[7] Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald rated it 3.5/4 stars and called it "an engrossing study of generational clash inside a locked bathroom."[8] Jonathan Holland of Variety called it a "perceptive" and "ultra-wordy" film that will mostly appeal to Spanish art-house audiences.[9] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The actors give their characters a resonance beyond the symbolic, but the action doesn't quite transcend the stagy setup."[10] John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "An engrossing two-hander combining the smart-talk microcosm of My Dinner With Andre and the sexual dynamics of a Philip Roth novel, David Trueba's Madrid, 1987 is more universal than its title suggests and holds a strong art house appeal."[11] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called it a "sweet, sometimes dull and certainly overlong film".[12] Fionnuala Halligan of Screen Daily wrote, "It is, in fact, hard to think of a movie less cinematic than Madrid, 1987" and stated that it might make a better play than film.[13] Ollie Coen of DVD Talk rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "For an artsy movie about two people stuck naked in a bathroom together, you could do much worse. [...] It has a lot to say about youth, love, idealism, sex, and life in general."[9]