Pumpkin
United Artists | Release Date: June 28, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Is alive, and takes chances, and uses the wicked blade of satire in order to show up the complacent political correctness of other movies in its campus genre. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
I laughed harder at Pumpkin than at any other film I've seen this year -- but be warned: This dark campus comedy is not for all tastes, or probably even most tastes. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Pumpkin's two greatest strengths: the majority of the film is original and engaging, and Christina Ricci turns in another fine performance. This pair of assets alone is worth the price of admission. Read full review
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
An odd and oddly endearing romantic black comedy. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
For all its brilliantly brazen sequences and energetic supporting players (as the young lovers' mothers, Brenda Blethyn and Lisa Banes are terrific), Pumpkin's abrupt shifts of mood and needlessly complicated ending(s) render its latter third a bit of a chore.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Fitfully daring, Pumpkin isn't quite sure what it's about -- the tone bounces between thudding satire and toothless camp parody -- but it's definitely a bad-mannered child of our times. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneChris Jones
Wildly uneven but nonetheless intriguing and funny. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The filmmakers try to balance pointed, often incisive satire and unabashed sweetness, with results that are sometimes bracing, sometimes baffling and quite often, and in unexpected ways, touching. Read full review
60
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
It rebounds in the last moments and I thought successfully blended satire, high camp and yet another sexual taboo into a really funny movie. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Broder's script makes the weird transition from satire to camp as if there were no distinction between the two. It's a bracing if at times bewildering experience. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Combining the fairy-tale idealism of "Edward Scissorhands" with "Hairspray's" devilish sarcasm, the directors try for the sincerity of a message movie while affecting the hip facade of satirists. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
As PC busting goes, this first feature directed by Tony R. Abrams and scribe Adam Larson Broder shoots at close range, and there's something endearing about the way the filmmakers fire away so eagerly at such fluorescent-colored targets. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film doesn't seem to know how it feels, much less how others are supposed to feel about it. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Jas some nice moments, a great soundtrack and some wonderful works by the dark-even-while-light Ricci. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
After a lively start -- the sorority sisters, shaken by the slightest imperfection in themselves, cannot cope with handicapped athletes -- the film smooths its rough edges and reduces complex characters to sitcom stooges. Call it an opportunity missed. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Off sorority row, the movie goes flat for increasingly long stretches, with the filmmakers displaying so little understanding of or genuine feeling for the mentally challenged that they never advance past stutter-and-stumble humor. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The result is hit or miss, with a laugh here and there, ultimately creating an aura of hopeless and drawn-out improbability. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
There's the shell of not one but two excellent films in Pumpkin, but as it is the one we have here is just too bewildering to puzzle out. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The satire is broad and easy, while the romance is thoroughly unconvincing. Read full review
30
Village VoiceDennis Lim
In its own dimly reckless way, the film is riveting -- not unlike watching a tightrope walker with a bad case of vertigo. Read full review
30
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Begins as though the filmmakers imagine that they're making a daringly anti-p.c. serio-comedy, but long before it's over, the picture is wearing its bleeding liberal heart all over its sleeve. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Witless, insulting satire of sorority girls that shamelessly ridicules the mentally challenged. The filmmakers aren't exactly Mensa candidates themselves.
20
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A brain and a heart, two things that, along with a good story, believable characters and anything resembling style or flair, Pumpkin is fatally missing. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An amazing film amazingly tasteless, tin-eared and awkward, but amazing all the same. Anyone with a predilection for bad movies might want to see it, if only in an inspecting-the-wreckage spirit, since because movies this misguided come but once or twice a year. Read full review
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