Pretty Persuasion
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: August 12, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
14
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)David Gilmour
It is also extremely well-written in the fearless way of a smarty pants on a roll in the university cafeteria. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
This is a very funny film about a creepy, excruciatingly lonely world. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
An obscene, misanthropic go-for-broke satire, Pretty Persuasion is so gleefully nasty that the fact that it was even made and released is astonishing. Much of it is also extremely funny. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
It's too bad that the satire is not more pointed, because Pretty Persuasion is outrageously funny in short blasts, mainly thanks to James Woods at his most gleefully depraved. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The comedy is brutal and paper thin, but that is less bothersome than the ending of the movie, which abruptly changes its tone. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
There is such a thoroughgoing nastiness to the plot and dialogue that the film almost achieves a level of buoyancy. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
In a star-making performance, Evan Rachel Wood stars as essentially a younger version of Nicole Kidman's media-age femme fatale from "To Die For," an aspiring 15-year-old actress who hides a sharp, calculating mind behind a façade of vapid, chattering self-absorption. Read full review
60
EmpireDan Jolin
A teenie "To Die For" whose flaws are superceded by a complex, compelling turn from Evan Rachel Wood. Read full review
50
Film ThreatJeremy Mathews
Kills itself with unrestrained negativism, but almost resuscitates itself with some great comedy. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
So exploitative and misogynistic that its last-minute dramatic turns and pleas for tolerance and understanding come off as manipulative as its heroine. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
If the resulting film doesn't work equally well at all levels, Wood (who starred in "Thirteen") gives an astonishing performance that pushes it most of the way there. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Ms. Wood, who made a potent impression two years ago as a naïve adolescent led astray by a sophisticated and psychotic classmate in "Thirteen," has the whip hand this time around -- and she's wonderfully persuasive. She needs a movie to match.
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
So the movie is daring, and well-acted. Yet it isn't very satisfying, because the serious content keeps breaking through the soggy plot intended to contain it. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Tries to be an audacious, irreverent satire about youth culture like "Lord Love a Duck," but most of the laughs get strangled at birth by the uncertainty of Siega's tone. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Only partly successful. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Pretty Persuasion reminds me of a half-hour TV series that has a great pilot episode, then falls apart in subsequent installments. Movies need to grow and change to keep things interesting; this one is stagnant. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Isn't so much awful as it is self-conscious, overdone, shallow, and just not up to the level of its star. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis Harvey
An exercise in bad taste that takes itself just seriously enough to be offensive. Read full review
40
Village VoiceBen Kenigsberg
A high school send-up more gleefully incorrect than "Heathers" and considerably less articulate than "Election," Pretty Persuasion is a hand grenade lobbed at no place in particular. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
A film that aspires to join the company of its predecessors--smart, funny satires that skewered the hypocrisy and cruelty of high school life. But it won't. For starters, Pretty Persuasion commits a fatal error: It forgets to side with the students. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Sets out to be a social critique but settles for smug disdain. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Not funny because it's not true. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Another high school vixen movie, this one with a potty mouth (the vixen) and pretensions of social commentary (the movie), Pretty Persuasion brings to mind a number of other titles, all better. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Most of Halim's script is a laundry list of offensive remarks that he no doubt means to serve as titillating spoof, but none of it's funny or even the least bit provocative, just offensive. Read full review
30
Washington PostCurt Fields
It just rings false, like having Hannibal Lecter take up vegetarianism. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A devastatingly dishonest, tough look at teenage life. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The movie wants so badly to be mentioned in the same breath as "Heathers" or "Election" that it's not even funny. Really, I mean it, this charred-black comedy is not even funny. Read full review
0
PremierePeter Debruge
There's enough estrogen gone awry in this bitchy teen comedy to make "Mean Girls" look like a Disney after-school special. Read full review
0
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The disingenuous attempt to give the tawdry story some kind of social import only makes the tinny caricatures more insincere, while his erotic display of 15-year-old girls isn't a satire of a sexualized culture, it's just dirty. Read full review
More From This Movie

45 Critic Reviews

8.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL