66
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanOn the Outs parses the hopes and terrors of blasted lives with an empathy that never cheapens into pity. The movie wounds as much as it heals, and that's its true power.
- 75New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickA gritty, well-acted, documentary-style drama.
- 75New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanWhat makes the film feel genuine, however, are the performances.
- 70VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonSkillfully entwines stories of three young women drifting in and out of a Jersey City juvenile detention center.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenCertainly not the first film to show how a crushing urban environment can make a sensible-sounding antidrug slogan like "just say no" seem like so much nonsense, but it's one of the strongest.
- 70SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirA scared-straight after-school special, but actually good.
- 70Los Angeles TimesJan StuartLos Angeles TimesJan StuartBracing and remarkably compact drama, which invests some standard movie tropes of rough-and-tumble urban life with deep feeling and urgency.
- 60The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonThe A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonIt's all too easy to dismiss the characters' troubles as entirely of their own making. But the cast's fearless, evocative performances help a great deal.
- 60Village VoiceLaura SinagraVillage VoiceLaura SinagraMost importantly, the environment feels real: the accents, the snaps, the working moms and warehouse crack nooks, every dilapidated stairwell, every bodega and lovingly appointed teenage bedroom sanctuary.