Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men reviews
44
7.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy

Written by: John Krasinski
David Foster Wallace

Directed by: John Krasinski

Release Date:
Theatrical: September 25, 2009

Running Time: 80 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Julianne Nicholson, Will Forte, Dominic Cooper, Bobby Cannavale, Timothy Hutton, John Krasinski, Christopher Meloni, and Max Minghella

Based on the book by David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a darkly funny and disturbing exploration of men and their complex relationships with women. A graduate student endeavors to explore the male psyche for her thesis by interviewing a cross-section of men. The men’s twisted and revealing stories are juxtaposed against the backdrop of her own experience. As she begins to listen closely to the men around her, she must ultimately reconcile herself to the darkness that lies below the surface of human interactions. (IFC Films)

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...

70

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

One hell of a date movie. A surgical examination of the male psyche based on David Foster Wallace's book and written and directed by John Krasinski, there is plenty of food for thought and argument.

Read Full Review >
67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

At times, the movie could have been called "Me and You and Every One of the Bastards We Know," but Krasinski preserves Wallace's whooshing roller coasters of words, powered by the fuel of confession.

Read Full Review >
67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Raises the question of whether Krasinski made this movie because he really loves Wallace’s work, or because just he wanted to show Hollywood that the loveable doof from The Office can actually act.

Read Full Review >
63

USA Today Claudia Puig

An insightful, sharply written and unsettlingly amusing exploration of the darker elements of masculinity.

Read Full Review >
60

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

In his directorial debut, Krasinski doesn't seem to believe in his hideous men so much as he appears intimidated by them.

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

The film is intelligent, well crafted and often funny, but it may not sufficiently reward even the brief time it asks one to spend with such hideous men.

Read Full Review >
50

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If we learn nothing else about Krasinski as a filmmaker, it’s that he thinks more is more.

Read Full Review >
50

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

What this arid and arty exercise offers is the opportunity for a bunch of actors, many of them tethered to TV series, to deliver theatrical monologues pulsing with misogyny and narcissism. It's like second-rate Neil Labute.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Works only in spurts.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Post Kyle Smith

A blast from the 1980s, when the idea that men were essentially rapists and women rapees was a popular way to score chicks on campus.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

They’re not all hideous, the men who sit for interviews with a graduate student (Nicholson) and unload their dirty laundry. Sometimes they’re just feckless, or crass; some are even pitiable.

Read Full Review >
40

NPR Ian Buckwalter

Faced with the unenviable choice between honoring his daunting inspiration and telling his own story, the director shoots straight down the middle -- and misses both targets.

Read Full Review >
40

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Compacted into an 80-minute mishmash of interviews, confessions and sketches, melded into a shaky mosaic, the answers from a cross section of men are shallow, self-serving and ultimately unenlightening.

Read Full Review >
40

Variety Todd McCarthy

It's a very academic movie about academics that belongs in academia, not movie theaters.

Read Full Review >
40

Time Out New York David Fear

The question is, could someone turn these full-frontal-dudity snapshots into a satisfying, cohesive movie? Answer: no, but not for lack of trying.

Read Full Review >
20

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

As a film, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is a disaster.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

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

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use