November
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 22, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
An ingeniously scripted psychological thriller. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Courteney Cox, well known from TV, rarely gets an opportunity to revise her famous image, but here she is serious, inward, coiled. She carries the film; the other characters circulate through her consciousness as possibilities and hypotheses. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Ambiguous in a satisfying, puzzling sort of way, November offers a triptych of scenarios revolving around a grim moment. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The depth of the story and the characters is awfully slight to bear the weight of such fancy editing. But the performances are crisp and in focus, with Cox in particular showing a photogenic feel for expressing grief. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
The creative and experimental use of sound and photography are a big part of what makes November an intriguing film. Read full review
60
Film ThreatGreg Bellavia
Tries to be a lot of things within its 78 minute running time, succeeding marvelously at some while crashing and burning on others. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Feels more like a clever student short that got out of hand than the Kafka-esque nightmare that director Greg Harrison (Groove) likely intended. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
In the same way that a crossword puzzle tickles the mind without asking to be taken as literature, November plays games for the sake of game-playing. It also has a pretentious streak. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Exploring the possibilities of low-budget digital filmmaking is a worthy endeavor, but November is a little too in love with the grittiness of it all. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Benjamin Brand's script never levels with a viewer. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
Like a jigsaw that's more fun to assemble before you know how all the pieces fit, Greg Harrison's brain-teasing meta-thriller November is less compelling the more apparent its solution becomes. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
To their great credit, writer Benjamin Brand and director Greg Harrison weave these contradictory variations into an effective puzzle, if one that doesn't quite transcend being a puzzle - it never becomes a mystery, like, say, "Mulholland Drive," or even "The Sixth Sense." Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Increasingly perplexing film, which is more concerned with being clever than satisfying. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
For all its good intentions in exploring the grace of death, November never creates a life outside of its all-too-obvious inspirations and the mystery becomes little more than a groaner. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
Lacks the finesse of other puzzle films. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneAchy Obejas
The fact is, neither Harrison or scriptwriter Benjamin Brand is very honest with the audience. Read full review
50
Washington PostCurt Fields
The best thing about this psychological exploration is its star, Courteney Cox. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It doesn't always succeed, and sometimes it has the egocentric obviousness of a particularly clever, grad-student thesis film, but at least Harrison is game enough to mess with your head in the first place. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
There's less than meets the eye in this tricky psychological thriller, one of a long line of mess-with-your-head brain ticklers in which all is not as it seems. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
Cox, bespectacled and deglamorized here, shows some acting ability, but by the time you get through this 78-minute bag of tricks, you could be suffering from a case of perceptual overload. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
There's no real payoff - artistically or emotionally - in Gregory Harrison's gimmicky and tedious psychological thriller November, shot on ugly digital video. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Convoluted and unsatisfying psychological drama. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Offers cliches instead of chills. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This parallel-reality shtick would be OK if the gun violence weren't so awful--but staging a murder again and again for the sake of some undergraduate head game is no more defensible than using it to pump up an action flick. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Cox's morose performance could not be less interesting, Harrison's visual stylings all feel borrowed from David Fincher movies and nine inch nails music videos, and the film's elliptical mysteries, which twist onto themselves a la Mulholland Drive, aren't interesting enough to ponder. Read full review
12
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Brand's script is a puzzle without a satisfying solution. Even at its supposedly heartfelt conclusion, it's more ironic than emotional, more of an art thing than a suspense movie. Read full review
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