Lovely & Amazing
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: June 28, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here is a movie that knows its women, listens to them, doesn't give them a pass, allows them to be real: It's a rebuke to the shallow "Ya-Ya Sisterhood." Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Emerges as something rare, an issue movie that's so honest and keenly observed that it doesn't feel like one. It earns its thesis statement through minute details and a unique grasp of a commonplace problem. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Holofcener is honest enough to present human foibles, not just as weaknesses but as unexpected sources of humor and strength. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Like the best of personal, independent cinema -- it is both marvelously observed and completely individual. There is no film like this film, and that is something you don't hear every day. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Lord knows how Holofcener got the performance she did out of Goodwin, but the child actor's Annie, rude and unmanageable, is an extraordinarily rich and complicated figure. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
A film of this sort demands superb, seemingly effortless acting, and Holofcener gets it at every turn. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Lovely & Amazing goes to the heart -- and face, and skin -- of a subject that's sure to ring true with women, and may even educate men.
80
Chicago ReaderHank Sartin
What keeps all this from being trite and self-indulgent is Holofcener's willingness to make her characters' neuroses unattractive and self-destructive instead of cute and endearing. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
In this painfully funny and touching look at the vanities and insecurities that a mother (Brenda Blethyn) can pass on to her daughters in the name of love, writer-director Nicole Holofcener ("Walking and Talking") does a chick flick right. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Catherine Keener, Emily Mortimer and Brenda Blethyn shine in a delicate, loose-limbed and tremendously alive indie about women, family, self-image and survival. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Warmhearted and slightly edgy seriocomedy, these sisters experience some pretty entertaining ups and downs. Entertaining, that is, for people who appreciate irony. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
You simply want the story to go on and on. Let's hope that Holofcener's movies do: Her peregrinations through the lives of contemporary women know few screen equals. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
This trio is like a looser, funnier version of the family of wrecks in Woody Allen's ''Interiors.'' Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It is at times serious and at times very funny. But it is always perceptive, and that quality, more than any other, is what makes it worth a recommendation. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
This is a fine, funny, humane film. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
By turns cheerful, funny and melancholy, and at all times honest, Nicole Holofcener's Lovely and Amazing stands out in the current run of ensemble women's films.
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
The film is almost worth seeing just for the extraordinary scene in which a stark naked Mortimer has her movie star lover (Dermot Mulroney) deliver an exhaustive critique of her body's flaws. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is a gutsy little picture and a nice slice of life. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneLoren King
Delivers a surprising, moving portrait of contemporary womanhood. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
About how women see themselves in terms of bodies, age and careers, but without all the "you go girl" tripe crammed into so many other movies of this ilk. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A chick flick of a particularly intelligent, ruthless, and loving sort. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Watching Lovely and Amazing is like coming into a long-running, well-written television series where you've missed the first half-dozen episodes and probably won't see the next six. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
This feels the way a lot of us are living now -- on desperation's dull yet still cutting edge. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Engaging, intermittently insightful but too glib to wring full value out of its subject matter. Read full review
70
Film ThreatEllen Marshall
In this era of fluffy, big-budget Hollywood "chick flicks", it's pretty refreshing to find a film that genuinely deals with women, family, self-image and survival. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Jean Oppenheimer
A modest, uneventful film, buoyed by fine, albeit low-key, performances and the ring of truth.
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Holofcener's smart, acidic comedy Lovely and Amazing zeroes in on contemporary narcissism and its fallout with a relentless, needling accuracy. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Warm, funny and often brutally honest profile of an aging divorcee and her three very different daughters. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
There is a certain poignancy to a film that metaphorically examines the stages of a woman's life through each character. Read full review
50
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
Everyone in this chintz-covered world is a little creepy. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Holofcenere genuinely wants to make pictures that plug into an audience's need for intimate contemporary comedies. But she doesn't do enough to quench that thirst. Read full review
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