Alpha Dog
Universal Pictures | Release Date: January 12, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
17
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
In his best film to date, Nick Cassavetes directs with ferocious energy, taking scenes past their logical stopping points and pushing his actors (particularly Foster, who can be as terrifying as Edward Norton in "American History X") to, but never over, the precipice of absurdity. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Alpha Dog isn't a happy movie, but it's dramatically solid and the impressions it leaves will not be easily shaken. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Don't be fooled by the presence of some pretty-boy actors: Alpha Dog is a gritty, gut-wrenching and disturbing film. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Cassavetes' instincts are spot-on, particularly when it comes to casting Timberlake in what turns out to be the most important role in the film. He manages to be both reprehensible and deeply charismatic, and winds up stealing the picture. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Around the midpoint Alpha Dog becomes less sociological and more personal, developing a real sense of suspense. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Like "Rebel", directed by Nicholas Ray, this film excels at capturing the nervous posturing of adolescent boys marking their territory by pissing on each other's shoes. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
If nothing else, Alpha Dog's worth a look for the performance of Justin Timberlake, the moral center of a movie sorely in need of some conscience. Already a gifted comic actor--his Saturday Night Live appearances are now anticipated events--he proves himself able to go to a pitch-black place. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie suffers from an uncertain structure, but it boasts an extraordinary naturalism, not particularly flattering. Sharon Stone has a brilliant, harsh turn as Zack's mom, and both Bruce Willis and Harry Dean Stanton have good turns as the elder generations of Trueloves. But the movie belongs to its youngsters, and it's a real eye-opener. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Alpha Dog may well go down as the most dispiriting film of 2007. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Justin Timberlake shows that he can do more as an actor than just take his shirt off - though he does that a lot as well - in the irresponsible, uncommercial but surprisingly watchable Alpha Dog. Read full review
63
PremiereEthan Alter
At its best though, the film offers a pointed critique of a youth culture that views someone like Jesse James Hollywood as a person to emulate. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There's more voyeurism going on here, and less insight into a certain culture (the young and the wasted), than the filmmakers would probably admit to, but the performances are scarily real, and the outcome, well, is just scary. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin Chang
Writer-director Nick Cassavetes' sprawling dramatization recklessly blurs the line between reconstruction and reality in ways that are admittedly interesting, if more than a little artistically suspect. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Your enjoyment of Alpha Dog may very well depend on how put off you are by these facts, as well as how much you buy Timberlake in his role, and how in the mood you are to sit through "River’s Edge" set in the "Entourage" universe. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly Richards
It suffers from ADD, but there's some terrific stuff in here. Leaving 15 minutes from the end and saving yourself a lumbering coda may improve enjoyment. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
For all of the credibility of the performances (or at least the teens), it all feels like recycled social commentary. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Had the film been more tempered in its textures, had Cassavetes chosen a surer attitude toward his subjects, it might have been devastating. As it stands, though, it's far more showy than substantial. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Timberlake walks off with the movie. Too bad it's not worth stealing. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Cassavetes throws in everything he can recycle to grab a core-demo viewer -- slutty teens making out, blaring rock music, guns, split screens. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
All the bright colors Cassavetes splashes on the canvas don't make Alpha Dog art. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The cretins rule in Alpha Dog, which has much the same entertainment value you get from watching monkeys fling scat at one another in a zoo or reading the latest issue of Star magazine. Of course a little of that nasty stuff may land on you, but such are the perils of voyeurism. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Apart from the grim forebodings of tragedy, writer-director Nick Cassavetes seems to have modeled this ambitious docudrama on Larry Clark's kiddie-porn shockers, but he doesn't know what to leave out, and the movie becomes excessively complicated with ancillary agendas. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Who would have thought that a real-life tale of sex, drugs and murder could be so instantly forgettable? Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
The whole thing is dizzying, like "Moulin Rouge" without songs and dances extolling love. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
As it escalates to a nasty conclusion, Alpha Dog doesn't have the moral or emotional weight of tragedy. These aren't the psychologically exploded youths of "Rebel Without a Cause," or even "The Outsiders." They're characters in a long, violent, unbleeped episode of MTV's "Cribs." Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's another portrait of amoral, hedonistic youth gone awry, a la Larry Clark's "Bully", and it is alternately engrossing and ridiculous, often in the span of one scene to the next. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It's a soggy drama said to be inspired by actual events – too serious to be trashy, too trashy to be serious. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
In a film with several over-the-top characters bordering on camp, Timberlake's Frankie is the only one who approaches three dimensions, adept at convincingly dishing out some of the movie's disturbing violence as well as registering subtle shifts in Frankie's allegiance. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
In this mess of a picture, Timberlake may be the rookie actor, but he's also the one to watch, the movie's North Star. The rest may as well be pinholes in a box. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Its main feature is incessant, unimaginative profanity...Take out the cursing, and you're left with a plebeian drama about angry, aimless potheads, sloppily directed by the man who wrote it. Read full review
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