A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III
A24 | Release Date: February 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
8
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Film.comJordan HoffmanFeb 26, 2013
As the anticipated follow-up to Roman Coppola’s marvelous 2001 film “CQ,” this is something of a letdown, but as a breezy romp it could be far, far worse. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 5, 2013
A film of surface pleasures, even joys, but those joys seem to be longing for a central idea around which to coalesce. Read full review
60
NPRJoel ArnoldFeb 8, 2013
The moody picture even swings toward hopeful in its final minutes, as it tries to celebrate Charles as the man he is, faults and all. It's enough to leave you wondering whether even a glimpse inside this mind is too much. Read full review
60
VarietyBoyd van HoeijFeb 5, 2013
Swan is more of a doodle than a fully formed idea, though not necessarily less enjoyable for it, since it was clearly intended to be an undisciplined, anything-goes kinda story. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumFeb 13, 2013
No less sweet for being unoriginal: A guy (Charlie Sheen) mourns a bad breakup with the woman he loves (Katheryn Winnick). The execution, on the other hand, is perilously self-absorbed. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 7, 2013
The earnest passages mostly just lie there; the film works best on its frilly, exuberant surface, as a valentine to Streamline Moderne, Pop Art and L.A. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 9, 2013
As the film progresses, the actor fails to progress with it: As Charles Swan seems to become more aware of his loneliness, Charlie Sheen seems to become more protective of his Charlie Sheen–ness. Read full review
40
TimeMary PolsFeb 7, 2013
All this eye candy is ultimately only about as engaging as watching kids at play, which is what Sheen and Schwartzman seem to be doing. I can’t argue that this isn’t an accurate glimpse inside some man’s mind — perhaps Austin Powers? Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonFeb 5, 2013
With neither the moral bite of satire nor a voluptuary surrender that really basks in shallowness, this is a vague, unsatisfying work. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 5, 2013
Fellini used to get away with such slender crises, but he had Marcello Mastrioanni behind the shades, as well as a more vivid penchant for psychosexual fantasy. Coppola and Swan are stuck in their obsessions with dorky album art and old-man cocktails at Musso & Frank. A precious, arid thing, Glimpse arrives pinned to Styrofoam like a prize arthropod. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 14, 2013
The actor/walking disaster known as Charlie Sheen gives a perfectly credible performance here. It’s the rest of the film that tries your patience. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 13, 2013
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III is a curious mess, a movie that doesn’t really seem to have any reason to exist, other than maybe to give writer and director Roman Coppola and star Charlie Sheen something to do for a few weeks. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 7, 2013
For all its visual pizazz A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III has the jerky momentum of a collection of disconnected skits loosely thrown together with only the vaguest notion of where it’s heading or what it all means. At best it is a mildly diverting goof with a charmless lead performance. Its underlying misogyny leaves a sour taste. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungFeb 5, 2013
With such an in-house cast of extended Coppola family sparklers, one would think things couldn’t go too wrong in the comedy department, but they have little chance to oil the wheels of a creaky script written around Sheen. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 2, 2018
Stay through the charming closing credits — the only place “charm” figures into this — to see who Hayes is. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 15, 2013
That was probably writer-director Roman Coppola's main responsibility in "Charles Swan," to give the audience a character worth watching. Get that right, and everything else falls into place. Get that wrong, and the audience finds out just how long 84 minutes can be. The answer: really long. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFeb 13, 2013
A film is a terrible thing to waste. For Roman Coppola to waste one on A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III is a sad sight to behold. I'll go further. For Charlie Sheen to waste a role in it is also a great pity. I stop not: For Bill Murray to occupy his time in this dreck sandwich is a calamity. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickFeb 7, 2013
So feeble it fails even as train-wreck exploitation. I’d be unkind, but not entirely inaccurate, to label Coppola’s sophomoric, er, sophomore effort as a director an offer you can refuse. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJan 8, 2013
The film speeds ahead with almost gleeful disinterest in dealing with the narrative challenges it sets up before resolving them in the most perfunctory ways imaginable. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 7, 2013
Swan is so eager to be a trippy comic lark that it ends up resembling a clown trying to fit through a pea-shooter. Read full review
20
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 5, 2013
Seriously, this is one of the strangest and most painful films in recent memory. Read full review
0
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinFeb 6, 2013
It isn’t a movie so much as a feature-length perfume commercial for a Charlie Sheen signature cologne with gorgeous packaging and absolutely nothing inside. Read full review
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