God's Pocket
IFC Films | Release Date: May 9, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
15
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 15, 2014
While the subject matter is often bleak, this isn’t a depressing journey. Seeing great actors at the top of their game working with such rich material is never a downer. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithMay 7, 2014
As for Hoffman, the shambling Everyman naturalism he shows here gives God’s Pocket an added elegiac layer that makes its bitter ironies that much more painful. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 7, 2014
The performance, one of Hoffman’s last, is unostentatious, but sensitive. Hoffman inhabited lifelong losers better than any other actor. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 9, 2014
Slattery adapted the book with Alex Metcalf and gets the tone just right. The film is damnably amusing. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 8, 2014
Gritty, funny, rich adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 15, 2014
You can tell by some loose threads and hurried workmanship that God’s Pocket is a knock-off, but it’s so stuffed with value, it’s an offer you can’t refuse. Read full review
70
The DissolveMike D'AngeloMay 8, 2014
Because the actors are uniformly strong, though, and because the neighborhood itself provides such a credible context, Slattery manages to create the impression of an immense backstory that informs every interaction, making any sketchiness seem like naturalism rather than a failure of imagination. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 14, 2014
The drama may not be as focused as we might like, but Slattery’s outstanding gallery of actors make this an ensemble piece that commands our attention: These dead-end characters stick out like bas reliefs in the community framework. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 15, 2014
You might call it a black comedy of errors, but the humorous side of the film is less well executed than Slattery’s impeccable creation of a certain neighborhood feel. Read full review
60
CineVueDaniel GreenAug 6, 2014
Slattery does at times struggle to bring anything new to the impoverished blue-collar, working-class trope. Relying heavily on several top-drawer character actors to lift his occasionally flat, even nihilistic story of love and death amidst urban decay, it's Hoffman and Jenkins that deserve the largest proportion of praise, while other characters quickly fall to the wayside of our interest. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 10, 2014
The material isn’t excited or shaped toward any insight — the Mike Leigh of "Naked" did this sort of thing brilliantly — and the arrival of a sluggish investigating journalist (Richard Jenkins), himself a bar fixture and underachiever, doesn’t offer a valid counterpoint. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianJeff BakerMay 15, 2014
Everything feels flat and listless, like an August afternoon in the city with no air conditioning. Hoffman shambles through his scenes, no spark in his eyes, getting it done without the energy and spirit that was his stock in trade. Read full review
58
IndieWireRobert Cameron Fowler May 5, 2014
The numerous belly laughs are undermined by jarring flashes of darkness that never organically sync with the plot. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoMay 15, 2014
Best, probably, to appreciate the movie for what Slattery, Hoffman, and the cast do most effectively: craft a pervasive atmosphere of tired people trudging through tired circumstances that only seem to grow more, well, tiring. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMay 15, 2014
Many of the individual scenes are compelling, with a gritty tension that recalls "The Wire" and other good television. But too many of the attempts at "The Sopranos"-style comic drama fail. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 15, 2014
Although it contains some interesting characters, God's Pocket, like the neighborhood it depicts, is the kind of place you can't wait to escape, even if its inhabitants cannot. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 9, 2014
This is a flat, boring affair. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 8, 2014
The script, written by director John Slattery and Alex Metcalf, drifts too quickly into blue-collar cliches, leaving its interesting collection of characters only half-drawn at best. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczMay 7, 2014
In one of his final roles, Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a man whose no-good stepson is killed on a construction job, while John Turturro, Richard Jenkins, and Christina Hendricks round out a formidable cast that isn’t given much to work with. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 18, 2014
The film only intermittently displays the snap, precision and stylistic smarts a mixed-tone project like this requires; a half-good effort is not enough where buoyancy and a sly-to-mean spiritedness are required at all times. Read full review
42
The PlaylistCory EverettApr 18, 2014
The film is almost unrepentantly nasty towards its characters. Read full review
40
EmpireIan NathanAug 4, 2014
An uneven debut from John Slattery that nonetheless shows flashes of flair and a jet-black sense of humour. Read full review
40
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 8, 2014
These characters and their dilemmas could be the stuff of great, or at least good, drama, but Slattery's insistence on accentuating their sorrows with clinically depressed art direction wears thin rather quickly. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael NordineMay 6, 2014
The story... could have worked well as a pitch-black comedy, but first-time director John Slattery (Mad Men's Roger Sterling) takes the material so seriously that the mood never changes much after leaving the funeral home. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineNick PriggeMay 5, 2014
Throughout, it becomes difficult to know whether we're meant to empathize with these characters or laugh at them. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 8, 2014
As this strained, foul-mouthed exercise in gallows humor proceeds, God’s Pocket sustains a facade of meanspirited deadpan comedy. But there are no laughs, not even smirks to be had. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin ChangApr 18, 2014
John Slattery makes a wobbly transition into feature filmmaking with this drab and uninvolving dark comedy. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMay 7, 2014
There’s nothing remarkable or even remotely intriguing about the dyspeptic gang of submental sad sacks in this dull, flat fiasco. Read full review
20
The TelegraphAmber WilkinsonApr 18, 2014
We are encouraged to find these people stupidly brutal or comedic without being given the slightest idea as to why they might be that way. Read full review
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