Teeth
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: January 18, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A clever and affecting thriller/comedy about a subject that absolutely cannot be written about in a daily newspaper or website that's for a general audience. The film is a giddy pastiche of styles -- slasher picture, faith film, social satire, teen romp, '50s atom bomb monster movie -- and it makes you laugh and squirm and grin in appreciation. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJamie Tipps
Like a deranged version of “Clueless,” the film is light-hearted, yet subversive, displaying a surprisingly wicked bite…literally. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Campy, shameless and sophisticated, Lichtenstein's debut is gutsy and original, and it makes "Juno" look positively tame by comparison. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Teeth is not only odd but it's genre-defying. The film doesn't limit its field of choice: it's a black comedy, it's a drama about teen angst, it's a romance gone bad, it's a B-grade horror film, it's an allegory about female empowerment. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The film should have the edgy wit of "Election" here, but instead is played so straight it's hard to make the shift when things start getting really crazy. But stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a new kind of superhero and a couple of the ghastliest, most outrageous penis jokes ever imagined. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A smart and creepy fable in which the myth of the vagina dentata - yes, a toothed sex organ - is transplanted to teen suburbia. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Funny, very clever and still packs some cover-your-face bloody thrills that top any "Saw" or "Hostel" movie. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The most alarming cautionary tale for men with wandering libidos since "Fatal Attraction." It may also be the first horror movie that women drag men to see rather than the reverse. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
It's a brilliant concept for a horror movie, not least because the genre is usually so dedicated to male gratification, but the material requires a consistent tone, and first-time director Lichtenstein (son of pop artist Roy) can't quite get a handle on it. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Director Mitchell Lichtenstein finds new ground in the over-tilled suburbia of David Lynch and John Waters. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
An anti-date movie if there ever was one, Teeth is a darkly engaging if uneven horror movie spoof centering on men's fear of castration. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Teeth is the "Incredible Hulk" of sex satires. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneTasha Robinson
Teeth is about female exploitation and male castration. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This is going to be a notorious film that young audiences will be daring themselves to see, but it's actually funnier, darker and more troubling before it turns into a carnival of repeated dismemberment. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Most of the movie works because the blonde Weixler has a darling-daffy face (a pinch of Alicia Silverstone, a dollop of Drew Barrymore) and a should-I-or-shouldn’t-I ambivalence about sex that’s part realism, part screwball. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A game, disarming lead performance from Jess Weixler, who won a jury acting prize at Sundance, goes some way toward making palatable this mish-mash, whose provocative nature could carve out a certain commercial niche. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJim Ridley
Veteran actor Lichtenstein, the son of Pop artist Roy, rarely finds a workable tone, muffling the splattery mayhem with sluggish pacing and a tendency toward camp. Still, even if the movie's little more than a curio, I love the thought of Lichtenstein at the pitch meeting: "It's Jaws meets The Vagina Monologues!" Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Teenage horror-movie spoof, John Waters parody, No Nukes protest movie, twisted sex-education film, quasi-feminist fable, outrageous stunt: Mitchell Lichtenstein’s clever, crude comedy, Teeth, is all these and more. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film's mix of cheap gags, macabre coming-of-age story, social satire and Cronenbergian body horror is apparently meant to gel into black comedy, but it never quite does. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Turnabout is fair play, to be sure, but ultimately virtually everyone in Teeth ends up using sex as a weapon, edged or otherwise, to the detriment of all concerned. Just say "Ow." Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
There's no scarier myth for males, and Mr. Lichtenstein turns various images of emasculation into a black comedy that flirts, fairly tediously, with pornography. Read full review
38
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Lichtenstein's putative switcheroo on the Vagina Dentata trope is to play it as some kind of token of female empowerment, but it's pretty clear that the writer/director didn't think things through on any counts, contenting himself that the putative outrageousness of the concept could see him through. Read full review
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