The Real Blonde
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: February 27, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
8
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A meandering movie that usually meanders in entertaining directions. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Enjoyable and inviting. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A sharp, engaging look at what it's like to be hungry and not-so-young in New York. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
A smart, funny and endearing movie. It has enough cynicism to satisfy the part of DiCillo that would mock a blue-eyed superstar, yet enough genuine sentiment to make it possible for us to swallow the cynicism. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
A lively, well-constructed film with a large and appealing cast. Read full review
70
VarietyLisa Nesselson
Enjoyable, if sometimes scattered, comic exploration of the quest for integrity and depth in a world wowed by artifice and superficiality. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
DiCillo has always had the laconic, funkified, vaguely surreal air of a Woody Allen on cough medicine (or a Jim Jarmusch on Jolt, for that matter), but The Real Blonde is just so much ado about nada. Read full review
60
EmpireCaroline Westbrook
The Real Blonde has lost that certain something that earmarked DiCillo's earlier, more offbeat outings, resulting in a film which is pleasant rather than innovative. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Modine, as a morosely self-involved actor, looks as if he's about to strangle someone -- and the movie, an attack on superficiality, never quite makes it out of the shallow end. Read full review
50
Film ThreatChris Gore
An adequate attempt, but sorry, it's just not groundbreaking. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Christopher Harris
Like the fakery it satirizes, DiCillo's Real Blonde ends up ringing hollow. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The movie raises more interesting issues - often connected with the hazy lines between appearance and reality - than it's prepared to coherently explore. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJack Mathews
By interweaving a very contemporary love story into these themes, DiCillo has at least given it all a fresh spin. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Under the veneer of hip lies a bland romantic comedy wrapped in a layer of less-than-biting lifestyle satire, whose single most authentic moment involves an old woman and her scruffy mutt Buddy. Not cool. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubJoshua Klein
Unfortunately, this slight, dull film would have benefited from a bit more style, as well as substance, as its lame characters and obvious observations never rise too far above the soap operas DiCillo parodies. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Never manages to make its characters anything other than cartoons. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Denby
Stupidity is also an issue in the independent film The Real Blonde, in which everyone seems to have suffered an IQ slippage of some 40 points. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
If DiCillo had been going anywhere with this, I'd have gladly followed. But setting up petty ironies and pathetic references to Woody Allen seems to be his only goal. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Cute and smarmy are nothing new for writer-director Tom DiCillo; what is new is the crushingly unfunny fusion of the two he's hit upon for this film. Read full review
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