The Virgin Suicides
Paramount Home Video | Release Date: April 21, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Ethereal. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
[Coppola] understands the crisp, oblique horror and wistfulness of Eugenides' narrative, plunking down five enchanting princesses into an environment that is anything but magical. Read full review
100
New York PostJonathan Foreman
It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Possesses a tone that wobbles masterfully between whimsy, dread, affection and horror, building on rich performances and an understated showiness to cast a queer and tingly spell. Read full review
90
Washington PostRita Kempley
Bewitching. Read full review
90
Film.comElizabeth Weitzman
A lovely, luminous dream. Read full review
90
Film.comGemma Files
Subtle, strange, off-putting, fascinating. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
(Coppola) connects with the essential purity of Eugenides' story, stripping it down to its bare essentials and cutting straight to everything that's wonderful about it. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleSarah Hepola
In an astonishingly assured film debut, Coppola captures the poetry and sweetness of Eugenides' novel without allowing any of the standard rites of passage -- first dates, high-school dances -- to feel trite. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJay Carr
From start to finish there's a shimmer of discovery about it - our discovery of it, Coppola's discovery of how much she can do. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
[Coppola] has the courage to play it in a minor key. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMarc Caro
It's quite funny, though not in a predictably irreverent way, and it moves along briskly - a little too briskly toward the end. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday
It gets under your skin and into your head, and you don't want it to leave. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Coppola gives Suicides a haunted quality that is undeniably affecting, a feeling intensified by a wonderfully funny and touching Dunst.
80
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Coppola looks beyond the seductive metaphysical puzzle and locates the core of Eugenides's allegory in an obsessive, almost forensic act of remembering, both futile and inexplicably essential. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
An artful blend of '70s detail and dreamlike moodiness makes Coppola's first movie an exceptionally promising directorial debut. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Has a great deal of empathy for that excruciating limbo that is female adolescence. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
In contrast to big-screen bummers we see every week, this movie conveys genuine sorrow. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
Coppola infuses her movie with a dreamy poetic tone, and deftly translates the essential metaphors of youth, sexuality and death without sacrificing an earthy humor. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There's a melancholy sweetness here, a gentle humor that speaks to the angst and awkwardness of girls turning into women, and the awe of boys watching the transformation from afar. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A very curious and eclectic piece of work--fresh even when it's awkward. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
Humor prevails throughout, but it doesn't deflate the disturbing elements of the tale, which miraculously manages to stay droll, heartfelt and poignant to the end. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Successfully venturesome, but you need to know that it's also a real downer.
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Glum and preposterous -- an operatically stilted adolescent martyr fantasy -- and yet, as staged by Coppola, it's well worth seeing. Read full review
60
TNT RoughCutSarah Raskin
One major inappropriate casting decision (Kirsten Dunst, who's made a solid leap to young adulthood in "Dick" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is cast as 14-year-old Lux?) and an underdeveloped motive for the girls' self-demise left me unaffected. Read full review
60
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
While not exactly a cop-out, Virgin may leave some viewers who crave traditional closure with the same hollow ache described by the narrator as follows: "What lingered after them was not life but the most trivial list of mundane facts." Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The soundtrack (Heart, ELO, Todd Rundgren, and an original score by the French duo Air) is spot-on and the costume design (pukka shells and knee-socks) is hideously accurate. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Except perhaps for Lux, who, like The Virgin Suicides itself, is a hothouse flower perishing for want of sunshine and fresh air. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
While young Coppola is a pro with her camera, she'd be wise to brush up on her storytelling skills. Read full review
57
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
A detective story without a solution and a coming-of-ager without discernable characters. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Sofia Coppola, who's directed the film from her own screenplay, narrowly misses making the story work on the screen. Read full review
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