Terri
ATO Pictures | Release Date: July 1, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 20, 2011
Movies about high school misfits are common; this is an uncommon one. Terri, so convincingly played by Jacob Wysocki, is smart, gentle and instinctively wise. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJun 28, 2011
Jacobs, working from a script by Patrick de Witt, takes a conventional coming-of-age story and does it proud, enlivening the plot with an almost experimental portrait of alienation and despair. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 4, 2011
Wysocki is perfectly cast as a teen who's at odds with both his environment and himself. It's a terrific performance. And as the empathetic Fitzgerald, Reilly is at his quirky best. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJun 30, 2011
deWitt's script is much better than anything Jacobs has worked on before, with a story that gets richer as it goes. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 6, 2011
Terri is almost an anti-teen-coming-of-age teen-coming-of-age movie. And it's terrific. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJul 20, 2011
Reilly's performance here is hilarious: he's located the character in the bursts of shouting he uses to do his job and the warped sense of humor he needs to deal with the weird kids sent his way. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 7, 2011
It's potent stuff, laced with smart, sensitive humor, and extremely well handled by Wysocki and the excellent ensemble of young actors that become Terri's intimates. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 30, 2011
What lifts Terri above its peers is not the plight of its protagonist or the film's sympathy for him, but rather the care and craft that the director, Azazel Jacobs, has brought to fairly conventional material. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 28, 2011
A movie that could terrify parents while charming them with its compassion. Read full review
80
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJun 28, 2011
Humanistic without being moralistic, and very funny, Terri is a measured, observational examination of the stratification of teenage loser-dom. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 4, 2011
It is painful, it is funny, and it marks the remarkable debut of Wysocki. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJul 14, 2011
There's talent here, and creativity, but there's that rankling question at the core: Are we meant to sympathize with these outsiders or laugh at them? Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJul 14, 2011
If you've sworn off movies about adolescent misfits, I don't blame you, but make an exception for Terri. This modest comedy-drama declines to take the easy way out, unlike many examples of the genre. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 14, 2011
Tender, observant coming-of-age comedy. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 26, 2011
If the lighter scenes sometimes lean toward sitcom cuteness, Jacobs has a sufficiently deft touch to get away with it. The territory often seems closest to that of NBC's unjustly short-lived "Freaks and Geeks," which is by no means a bad place to be. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 26, 2011
Jacobs' slow-building portrait of a late bloomer makes this poetic picture an outsider even among outsider movies. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 20, 2011
Terri has a kind of lumbering grace that's intriguing to watch yet ultimately unknowable. That's both the originality and the frustration of this movie. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 26, 2011
Leisurely paced and plot-challenged, it's too unique and kindhearted to be outright disliked, but it's not the kind of film you can get too close to, either. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 21, 2011
The interaction between the three teenagers is well executed and plausible, despite the almost complete lack of a back story for any of them. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 21, 2011
Wysocki is a genuine talent, as is Jacobs, but the subject of Terri remains a pleasant blur. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 14, 2011
The movie struggles to find its shape throughout. Jacobs favors observational moments rather than linear narrative, and that's fine, but you still sense he's drifting toward a point that never quite coheres. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithJul 1, 2011
The film's attempt at a sort of beautiful anguish works best in its middle section. It takes far too long to get going, and it doesn't have much of an ending. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineBill WeberJun 29, 2011
Terri, a generously spirited dramedy in the high-school-misfit genre (indie division), finds director Azazel Jacobs taking a calling-card approach to his second feature. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 1, 2011
If one performance could tilt a movie the direction it needs to go, John C. Reilly's expertly left-of-center turn in Terri is it. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 2, 2011
From a psychological standpoint, this is murky territory but Jacobs presents it as the height of enlightenment – a confluence of two damaged souls. At least "Good Will Hunting," another movie that played this game, wasn't blah. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJun 26, 2011
It's a movie of thematic dead-ends. Director Azazel Jacobs and writer Patrick DeWitt give us a slow SLOW and somewhat morose tale that isn't remotely funny or profound enough to sustain that pace and tone. Read full review
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