Hollywoodland
Focus Features | Release Date: September 8, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The period details and performances are uniformly superb (Bob Hoskins is especially good as MGM executive Eddie Mannix), and the major characters are even more complex than those in "Chinatown." Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
With an uncredited assist from playwright/screenwriter Howard Korder, Hollywoodland features some tart, lively banter and welcome comedic touches. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The chief frustration of this otherwise well-made, well-acted, well-heeled picture -- a movie classy in its artful modesty, with every detail of plot and period furnishings lovingly conceived, every lick of jazz-influenced score true to the times -- is that it is so very self-absorbedly graceful about something so very insular and...unremarkable. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It packs surprising punch as a biopic. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
While Coulter and company try gamely to forge two powerful stories, they manage, finally, about one-and-a-half -- which is a lot more than most films, and for which moviegoers should be grateful. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Coulter is a TV veteran but a motion picture newcomer. His work here indicates he is someone to watch. The pacing is slow and deliberate, but the story never ceases to intrigue. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The irony is that Affleck's battering at the hands of fame has prepped him beautifully to play Reeves. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The title refers to the giant promotional sign for the Hollywoodland real-estate development that once loomed on the side of Mt. Cahuenga. Shorn of its last four letters 10 years before Reeves' death, it survives as the iconic Hollywood sign. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Hollywoodland is one of the nicest surprises of the late summer lull between blockbuster seasons, a smart period mystery--cum--character study--cum--bitter parable on the lures and liabilities of life in its titular locale. Read full review
70
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
Features an excellent cast all of whom shine. Affleck as Reeves has never seemed more charming and Brody’s Louis Simo is pretty much a scumbag who still manages to gain our empathy. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Props then to Affleck. Coulter contrived a neat behavioral trick by inducing his star to play a comparably big-jawed bad actor. Surrounded as he is by canny professionals--Lane, Hoskins, Smith, and Jeffrey DeMunn as an unctuous glad-handing agent--it's an unexpectedly touching performance. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
This film is brave enough to admit that not all failed movie careers are the result of evil corporate suits, and Affleck makes us care that this likable but weak-minded man threw away what was solid and good in his life for the chimera of fame. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Like Affleck's performance, Hollywoodland has its affecting moments. But generally it feels like an HBO original movie, where respectable but uninspired execution mars a fascinating subject and great cast. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Lane, perhaps the most underrated actress of those deemed employable in their 40s, wonderfully embodies the mogul's wife. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A whodunit, a whydunit, and an excuse for Adrien Brody to mug it up like nobody's business. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Hollywoodland explores an intriguing bit of Hollywood history, and through the strength of its performances keeps us engaged and entertained. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's a bit of a hodgepodge - unnecessarily complicated, clumsily structured, uncertainly directed and, as a whodunit, ultimately unsatisfying. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This summer has given us two Supermen to choose from in our own distemperate times: "Superman Returns" was for the starry-eyed idealists, Hollywoodland is for the bleary-eyed cynics. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Ultimately falls short of reaching the pleasingly pulpy heights of an "L.A. Confidential" or a "Chinatown" despite those obvious aspirations. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
First-time scripter Paul Bernbaum's framing story, designed to stir up suspicion that George Reeves was a murder victim rather than a suicide, unfortunately proves far less intriguing than does the melancholy tale of a limited actor reaching the end of the line during a transitional period in Hollywood. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Thanks to Lane, Hollywoodland, no great shakes as a thriller, becomes a quiet horror story about the monstrosity of time. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
And though brilliantly acted, it's not. For some reason, the director and the writer (Paul Bernbaum) have chosen an exceedingly awkward path into the materials. They break the narrative into two strands and play them off each other in cheap and easy ways for insubstantial effect. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
This overly derivative motion picture thinks it is doing and saying more than it is. Instead, it ends up as little more than a reasonable facsimile of the real thing, despite a subtle and effective performance by Ben Affleck, of all people. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Even though Brody works hard -- and he's got those magnificent drooping eyes, which suggest both innocence and a seen-it-all-before weariness -- his scenes don't spark, and the movie drags around them. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
This movie might have been better if it hadn't fashioned itself as a cross between "Citizen Kane" and "Chinatown," and instead had used Reeves's story to dramatize the transitional state of 1950s Hollywood. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
A film not nearly as intriguing as it should have been, centering on a death that isn't nearly as intricately fascinating as the filmmakers think. Exacerbating the problem is a cast of actors who seem too self-consciously playacting. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The window Hollywoodland offers into old-style workings of the company town is fascinating to behold, however the film doesn't always know where to direct our gaze. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Ben Affleck has packed on the pounds, slipped on some tights and given this exasperating film far more than it gives in return. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
They'll say that this year's two Superman pictures could not be more different, but they'll be wrong: Like "Superman Returns," Hollywoodland is laden with atmosphere but moves like it has lead in its tights. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Hollywoodland has scraps of old movie glamour. It also has shades of later movies that sullied all that class and refinement with a lurid touch, namely Roman Polanski's "Chinatown." But that's all Hollywoodland is: scraps and shade. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The film, actually, is a little like Reeves himself: It starts promisingly and trails off into indistinctness and mystery. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Ends up as colorless as Reeves' first Superman suit. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Reeves had an easy but peppy presence that was very likable, and Affleck's moroseness doesn't do him justice...and it doesn't help that Adrien Brody--as the film's ­other protagonist, a burnt-out gumshoe--is more actorish than the supposed actor. Read full review
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