 Writing for "The New York Times", Alex Abramovich calls "Ali" "The most thought-provoking, and beautiful, of [Fassbinder's] films" Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" praised the direction, saying "Fassbinder uses the camera with a precise, novelistic touch", and also praised Fassbinder's tributes to other films, saying "...[Fassbinder] didn't just make use of prior forms, he quoted them, and derived from them the ironies implicit in his melodramatic styles.