The Bronze
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 18, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
14
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMar 18, 2016
The Bronze has a loony Napoleon Dynamite–meets–Talladega Nights-on-the-balance-beam charm. Hope may be a giant jackass, but she’s America’s jackass. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMar 18, 2016
The Bronze often feels like an extended skit, but Hope is so refreshingly unladylike and the movie is so refreshingly cynical about gymnastics that the results are surprisingly amusing. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 17, 2016
The Bronze, for all its crudeness and lewdness (Melissa Raunch, anyone?) and wonky comedy, is actually a good old-fashioned tale of redemption. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczMar 17, 2016
The Bronze isn’t a brilliant game-changer, just a funny and filthy diversion. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 17, 2016
It's a very funny character needing more arc than Rauch's script offers or a shorter movie. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMar 16, 2016
It takes a surprising amount of time to adjust to the film’s shticky conception of its main character, Hope Ann Greggory (Melissa Rauch). Read full review
67
HitfixDrew McWeenyJan 25, 2015
In the broad strokes, I think The Bronze is okay. I laughed at some things, I sat stone-faced during some things that don't work, and at the end, I could tell what I was supposed to feel, but it was more like I'm being ordered to feel this way instead of the film actually earning it. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 17, 2016
I found myself admiring The Bronze for its stalwart refusal to soften Hope, and for Rauch’s carefully detailed performance.... But admiring isn’t quite the same as liking. This film is a comedy wrapped in barbed wire; approach with caution. Read full review
60
TheWrapTricia OlszewskiMar 18, 2016
The film offers one or two surprises. And when its humor lands, Rauch ensures that it sticks. Read full review
58
The Film StageJack GirouxMar 17, 2016
There’s a fine movie in here buried underneath a lot of bloat, but as of right now, it’s an overlong, mostly unfunny, and flawed character study. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 18, 2016
This is one of those comedies that could have been a brilliant short film on “Funny or Die” or “Saturday Night Live,” but wears out its welcome as a feature-length film. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMar 18, 2016
The Bronze is one of those faux-naughty comedies that simply doesn’t have the courage of its lack of convictions. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 18, 2016
It’s just not enough. The Bronze is predictable, and outside of Rauch, Cole and a very convincing (conditioning, some training, clever editing) Haley Lu Richardson, the cast is bland. Strong has nothing to play, and nobody else makes an impression. The Bronze is proof that one great joke is not the route to comic gold, or for that matter silver. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 17, 2016
The protagonist's unlikable routine is too high a degree of difficulty to execute flawlessly. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonMar 17, 2016
There are some laughs in The Bronze, but more time in which we might wish it would end already. When it does, just like on Hallmark, lessons are learned. Perhaps for Rauch, the lesson is to write herself a better movie next time. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoMar 17, 2016
Disappointingly, this scruffy indie doesn’t live up to its promise either, despite a few flashes of subversive inspiration. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 17, 2016
Not without its bluntly funny bits, this nasty, programmatic comedy wants to be outlandish but, oddly enough, it’s the movie’s lack of realism that really hurts it. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 25, 2015
The Bronze is a strident comedy made in accordance with the sole guiding principle of, when in doubt, go even more vulgar. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 25, 2015
Though no one would accuse The Bronze of not being funny, it somehow manages not to be funny often enough. Read full review
40
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerMar 17, 2016
Ms. Rauch (who wrote the film with her husband, Winston Rauch) nails the portrayal admirably under Bryan Buckley’s direction. But that doesn’t mean Hope is anyone you want to spend almost two hours with. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 17, 2016
Built on an interesting idea -- but which, unlike Strug, can't quite stick the landing. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 25, 2015
For a movie with a critique of mediocrity well within its grasp, this one settles for an embrace of it, barely breaking a sweat. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 18, 2016
This ostensibly edgy comedy didn't wring a single laugh out of me until maybe fifteen minutes before the finale. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryMar 17, 2016
The Bronze is just another movie about overcoming arrested development. It’s not as funny as it tries to be, but, for a few, fleeting minutes, it leaves an impression. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 16, 2016
This comedy has a few genuine laughs, but The Bronze never even comes close to making it to qualifiers. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 17, 2016
There’s a nude scene that comes out of nowhere that’s almost embarrassing. Why is it there? Like the movie itself, it’s almost daring, except it’s not. Read full review
25
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMar 17, 2016
The Bronze is so satisfied with its own winking crassness that it lets epithets constitute everything it has to say. Between that and the film’s scene-by-scene tonal shifts, what could’ve been an off-kilter curiosity curdles into a dull roar of disappointment. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithMar 16, 2016
Lovable misanthropes can be a lot of fun, but someone forgot to put in the lovable. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDrew HuntMar 14, 2016
The prevailing attitude behind the film can be boiled down to a simplistic idea: the cruder, the better. Read full review
25
IndieWireIbad ShahJan 25, 2015
For a comedy of such misjudged tones, Rauch is best when she plays up Hope's dramatic tendencies rather than her comedic side. Read full review
20
The GuardianJordan HoffmanMar 17, 2016
The first act of the film wins some laughs on surrealist shock humour, but at the expense of ever accepting this character and her world as real. Read full review
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