The Canyons
IFC Films | Release Date: August 2, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
10
Negative:
14
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
53
Film.comMatt PatchesJul 30, 2013
The Canyons has all the elegance and depth of a daytime soap opera, peppered with flashes of name brand nudity for a tantalizing hook. It’s a slog. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 15, 2013
The Canyons may not work, and the sex (as well as the synthesized glop on the soundtrack) may be tragically unhip, but it was made by a director who still cares. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 3, 2013
The Canyons is a sleazy soap opera that fails primarily because it gives us no one to care about and no reason why we should be interested that we don't care. Read full review
50
The DissolveMatt SingerJul 31, 2013
If Schrader and Ellis set out to prove that movies are dying or already dead, they might have done their job too well. The Canyons doesn’t play like the cure for a moribund industry, so much as a mildly effective, highly depressing administration of the last rites. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 31, 2013
In The Canyons, there’s no pleasure — only power struggles disguised as sex. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 22, 2013
The Canyons comes across as a desperate gambit for relevance by a group of artists who want to reinvent themselves but don't know how. Fittingly, that's the theme of the film itself. Read full review
40
CineVueAdam LowesMay 21, 2014
Despite a liberal dose of full frontal nudity, The Canyons fails to fully revel in its sleaze, struggling to even work as a deadpan satire on the kind of vacuous and deadened Hollywood types Easton Ellis brought to life in the pages of his debut novel, Less Than Zero. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 3, 2013
The Canyons has more in common with Schrader’s opulent immoral tableaux “The Comfort of Strangers,” “Auto Focus” and “The Walker” than with his other work (including the script for “Taxi Driver”). It’s weaker than those, though, and less biting. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 1, 2013
With The Canyons, [Mr. Schrader] tries to get at something real under all the hard, glossy surfaces, but ends up caught in the divide between the movie that he seems to have wanted to make and the one he did. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 29, 2013
The Canyons is not porn, but it has the demoralized second-rateness and the lowlife inanity of the porn world. Read full review
More From This Movie

36 Critic Reviews

5.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 71 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL