The Great New Wonderful
First Independent Pictures | Release Date: June 23, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The stories are eye-opening and heartwarming at the same time, but you'll be moved less by empathy for the characters than by the summoning of your own emotional memories. This movie is personal. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A quieter, less melodramatic piece of work than last year's "Crash," and arguably a better one. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Writer Sam Catlin and director Danny Leiner have fashioned an alert, shrewdly observed portrait of a moment in time. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Working from a stagy script by Sam Catlin, director Danny Leiner uses a dainty palette of tristesse (untouched when he made Dude, Where's My Car?) to suggest that the shadow of 9/11 makes every discontent more pathetic. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Overall, there's a patchwork quality to the movie, as if a batch of half-finished short stories were filmed before their time. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The result is a mixed bag of lozenges, some sweet, some tart and others that just melt away into nothing. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The story lines don't intersect in that schematic, "Crash"-y way, which is refreshing. Less refreshing is the neat-and-tidiness of the individual exchanges in Sam Catlin's script. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The new 9/11 movies aim to rekindle feelings that most of us have, by necessity, moved beyond. But there’s more than one way to move beyond, as suggested by the spottily affecting ensemble psycho-comedy The Great New Wonderful. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesGene Seymour
The movie falls short of the grandeur it's reaching for, but if you're looking for balm to soothe your frazzled nerves, you may be able to scrape some from the movie's rawer edges. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It is hard to feel much warmth toward people whose most salient feature is their disconnection from reality. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Unfortunately, screenwriter Sam Catlin and director Danny Leiner make the unexpected mistake of being too subtle. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Tries way too hard to be clever and shrewd. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
In the future, more and more filmmakers will do exactly what The Great New Wonderful has done: conceal their lack of ideas by bringing up 9/11. Read full review
20
Village VoiceBen Kenigsberg
Ironically, Leiner's two monuments to pothead delirium seem vastly more coherent than this hazy attempt to mine the zeitgeist, a film every bit as pointed as its nounless title. Read full review
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