66
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonA director with a more sensationalistic temperament might have milked this last section of the picture for melodramatic effect, but Russell's direction becomes, if anything, more brisk and more clipped.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDavies registers believable frustration and deadpan teenage disengagement in equal measure.
- 80The New York TimesThe New York TimesIt is also the sort of astonishingly fresh and self-assured work that can make a reputation.
- 80Washington PostWashington PostThis is dangerous, dissonant material, but writer/director David O. Russell, making his feature filmmaking debut, somehow pulls it off.
- 80EmpireEmpireRussell's success, however, is in creating a film that avoids being freaky or an exercise in titillation by employing a mixture of sympathetic writing and black, black comedy.
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenThe movie's tone concurrently embraces melodramatics and wry humor, a twisted suburban Oedipal knot seen through a sardonic, yet deeply involved, eye.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThis is not a "nice" movie -- it deals with some pretty intense issues (like incest and suicide) -- but it is both bold and inventive, and works because of an unforced approach.
- 70Los Angeles TimesPeter RainerLos Angeles TimesPeter RainerRussell is unusual among first-time directors in his ability to mold and shape performance. [28 Jul 1994 Pg. F2]
- 60The New YorkerThe New YorkerA movie about mother-son incest may sound like a daring writing-directing début, but David O. Russell, the fledgling auteur, stacks the deck like an old sharpie.
- 50Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumDespite a certain originality, the movie isn't really a success, not only because the plot bites off more than it can chew (the film doesn't conclude; it simply stops), but also because, like its hero, it has some trouble distinguishing between petty irritations and cataclysmic traumas.