Sex with Strangers
Showtime Networks | Release Date: April 26, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
7
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
It makes you sweat, laugh, squirm and self explore like few films -- fictional or documentary -- can. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Dentino
The effect is so riveting, and the cameras so psychologically penetrating, you may be left breathless -- but satisfied. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
More depressing than liberating, but it's never boring. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
As it stands, there's some fine sex onscreen, and some tense arguing, but not a whole lot more. Read full review
60
Film ThreatEric Campos
I love sex with strangers! Yeah, the film is cool too. But damn, do I love sex with strangers! Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film is graphic without being lurid, and the naked emotions onscreen are far more shocking than the naked bodies -- though there are plenty of those, in all shapes and sizes. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The film is ostensibly about sex and swinging, but in depicting the complex boundaries of the sexual fringe, it ends up saying a lot about the joys and frustrations of maintaining any relationship. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Here are people who do not allow the use of their last names, yet they cheerfully have sex in front of the camera -- and even willingly participate in scenes that make them look cruel, twisted, reckless and perhaps deranged. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Explicit yet consistently unerotic. It's also intensely sad, capturing everything about these people except the high they ceaselessly chase. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis Harvey
Doesn't compare favorably with David Schisgall's similarly themed "The Lifestyle," released to arthouses last year. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
The whole thing still reeks of voyeurism -- and not the fly-on-the-wall voyeurism of a vérité doc, but rather the dirty-old-man-in-the-peep-show-booth kind. Might as well just wait for it to hit late-night cable. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
You never know what these people are going to say or do, but you're pretty sure it will be whatever they want to. Read full review
38
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of Job to get through this interminable, shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Rarely has sex on screen been so aggressively anti-erotic. Read full review
20
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Choppy, overlong documentary. Read full review
10
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It's the element of condescension, as the filmmakers look down on their working-class subjects from their lofty perch, that finally makes Sex With Strangers so distasteful. Read full review
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