Down to the Bone
Laemmle/Zeller Films | Release Date: November 25, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Down to the Bone achieves what only the best independent films have: making life, at its most unvarnished, a journey. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
The film is so pitch perfect and realistic, it seems you are there with these people, watching their lives unfold before you as it happens. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Down to the Bone emerges with an aura of authenticity so strong as to be mesmerizing, thanks to a superior script brought to life with infallibly natural performances. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Quietly devastating. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A quietly harrowing chronicle of addiction and fragile recovery anchored by Vera Farmiga's intense performance. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Writer-director Debra Granik has found a star, and wisely builds every scene around Farmiga's character. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar. Read full review
70
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Strong performances from Vera Farmiga and Hugh Dillon keep things from becoming overdramatic. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
This is a performance without the histrionics and emotional outbursts that accompany most portrayals of addiction. This feels closer to the truth. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
First-time feature director's disciplined objectivity is coupled with humanism in this collaboration with a gifted cast and cinematographer. The artistic success, though, may be a bit too cool. Read full review
70
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Like Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen," this film has an ear for the way moms talk to kids, a sensitivity to drug-sweetened intimacies, and an appreciation of the urgent nuance, not just the comedy, of recovery-speak. Read full review
70
The New York TimesLawrence Van Gelder
The kind of movie most independent films strive in vain to be: a small, beautifully faceted gem. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Farmiga is excellent as a woman who is like the mouse she feeds to her son's pet snake - trapped and about to be eaten alive by ordinary circumstance. Read full review
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