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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

America the Beautiful

EMAILPRINTFirst Independent Pictures

America the Beautiful reviews
40
N/A User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 0 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Darryl Roberts

Directed by: Darryl Roberts

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 1, 2008

Running Time: 105 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for some language, including sexual references

Starring Gerren Taylor, Eve Ensler, Julianne Moore, Anthony Kiedis, Jessica Simpson, and Paris Hilton

Who actually benefits from this high-priced journey towards this ideal? Is corporate America’s bottom line so important that it justifies a nation’s psychosis? What are the true costs of our obsession with youth, beauty, and a slender physique? At the heart of “America the Beautiful” is the story of Gerren Taylor, a teenager who went from being an innocent 12 year old girl to being one of America’s next top supermodels. As she and her mother head down the windy road to stardom, viewers watch the dichotomy between Gerren's adolescent struggles and her adult “rights of passage” on the catwalks of Marc Jacobs, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger and other top designers. Her tumultuous quest acts as a mirror to the American psyche, and it becomes apparent how the same beauty that could jump-start her career could ultimately destroy her young life. (First Independent Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

America the Beautiful carries a persuasive message, and is all the more effective because of the level tone that Roberts adopts.

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75

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A sprawling, messy, frustrating and impassioned examination of the psychological fallout from America's obsession with a highly artificial and all-but unattainable standard of beauty.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Leba Hertz

Mostly succeeds in unmasking the flaws of fetishizing skin-deep beauty.

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70

Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton

Unexpectedly witty and affecting exposé of the American beauty industry.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A wide-ranging, disturbing look at our obsession with our looks.

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60

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Often insightful and more than a little depressing, this is a story that only gets uglier as it goes on.

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50

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Gerren's story is fascinating, but Roberts dilutes it by going off on tangents about unsafe cosmetics and phony plastic surgeons. Both topics need exploring - just not here. There's more than enough drama in Gerren's life.

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50

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Wide-ranging educational documentary attaches itself to the rise and fall of a 12-year-old fashion model, and indeed, its sincere, cautionary tone seems best suited to younger auds and small screen exposure.

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50

Portland Oregonian Stan Hall

Takes its point -- our nation has an unhealthy obsession with beauty and physical perfection -- and uses it as a bludgeon.

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30

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

With so many pointless detours ripping you away, the film feels as lamely digressive as the proverbial one-track guy whose head won't stop turning as each new temptation walks by.

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25

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Roberts blunders amiably and cluelessly through his amateurish eyesore of a documentary on society's obsession with beauty, perpetually searching for a thesis that will transform a shambling mess of half-baked thoughts and pointless digressions into a real documentary.

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20

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

The scattershot America the Beautiful recapitulates vintage "Beauty Myth" trumpery.

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0

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Clueless, directionless and altogether pointless.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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