CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

85 Alexandra
40 America the Beautiful
66 American Teen
74 Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
65 August Evening
xx Bachna Ae Haseeno
62 Baghead
58 Beautiful Losers
xx Beer for My Horses
47 Before the Rains
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
56 Bottle Shock
75 Boy A
55 Bra Boys
61 Brick Lane
64 Brideshead Revisited
47 Burn After Reading
61 Bustin' Down the Door
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
54 CSNY: Déjà Vu
xx Cthulhu
86 Edge of Heaven, The
66 Elegy
52 Elsa & Fred
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
82 Frozen River
71 Girl Cut in Two, A
62 Girls Rock!
xx Goal II: Living the Dream
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54 Hamlet 2
25 Hell Ride
44 Henry Poole is Here
76 I Served the King of England
72 I.O.U.S. A
63 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
67 Jellyfish
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
78 Last Mistress, The
50 Last Stop for Paul
70 Love Songs
61 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
62 Mister Foe
85 Momma's Man
74 Mongol
46 My Mexican Shivah
80 Order of Myths, The
66 Patti Smith: Dream of Life
54 Ping Pong Playa
77 Pool, The
72 Priceless
61 Red
71 Roman de gare
78 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
51 Savage Grace
55 Save Me
73 Secret, A
57 Sixty Six
58 Sukiyaki Western Django
xx Surfer, Dude
83 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
71 To the Limit
72 Transsiberian
81 Trouble the Water
83 U2 3D
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
67 XXY
54 Year of the Fish
xx Young People F**king
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Joshua
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Joshua reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 69 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.8 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 21 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and some disturbing behavior by a child

Starring Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, Michael McKean, Jacob Kogan, Nancy Giles, and Linda Larkin

Joshua is the tale of Brad and Abby Cairn, perfect Manhattan parents in a perfect Manhattan apartment whose perfect life begins to crack after the birth of their second child Lily. Shortly after Lily arrives home, a dark side of prodigy son Joshua slowly begins to reveal itself. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)


GENRE(S): Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: George Ratliff
David Gilbert
 
DIRECTED BY: George Ratliff  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 8, 2008 
Theatrical: July 6, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

100
The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge
Superbly crafted psychological thriller.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Joshua does grow a bit repetitious (it lacks the cathartic climaxes of a horror film), yet it has cool and savvy fun with your fears.
Read Full Review
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
Director George Ratliff plays pitch-perfect on the tautly wound strings of our innermost fears that nothing -- not love, wealth or intelligence -- can protect us from the monsters we harbor.
Read Full Review
83
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
There's drama here, and moments of genuine tension, but there's fun, too, which is the point of a movie like this. To Ratliff's credit, he never lets the considerable craft get in the way.
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Only viewers with some appreciation for the odd, bloodless character of moneyed family life in New York will really understand how hilarious and deadly accurate this movie is. But then again, New York parents are the last people who will want to see it.
Read Full Review
80
Variety Todd McCarthy
A creepy-little-kid suspenser decked out with sufficient class to lend it a certain distinction.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Poised self-consciously between art and entertainment, Joshua offers imaginative staging and some superb performances.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It should be mandatory viewing for right-to-lifers and prospective parents as well as fans of creepy, crawly filmmaking.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
To lump in this smart, subtle, deviously effective thriller with "The Omen" or "The Good Son" is neither fair nor entirely accurate.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Terrifically sneaky psychological thriller, which takes great pleasure in watching carefully constructed family values come tumbling down.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Joshua falls a bit flat at the end, but overall it delivers some genuine old-school chills - something that was missing when Macaulay Culkin played a similar role in "The Good Son."
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
First-time director and co-writer George Ratliff skirts, but never quite crosses, the line into absurdity.
Read Full Review
75
Premiere Glenn Kenny
One of the most diabolical things about this psychological thriller is just how open to interpretation it is.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Harrowing, controlled and diabolically self-assured, Joshua leaves filmgoers teetering on their own emotional precipice, wondering just where pathos ends and pathology begins.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A nifty psychological thriller--part "Bad Seed," part "Rosemary's Baby"--that deals in a manner both comic and creepy with the parental anxieties of a Manhattan haute yuppie family.
Read Full Review
70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Part of the fun of Joshua is the skill with which Ratliff juggles horror and realism, feeding one into the other until we become part of the unraveling of the Cairns' perfect life.
Read Full Review
70
Film Threat Jamie Tipps
Even though the story covers familiar ground, it provides enough tension and humor in the presentation to make it worth watching
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Seductive and creepy, perfect for a hot summer night when nobody has the energy to pose a lot of questions.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Ratliff fails to deliver on any of these ideas and the ending falters badly, but as horror flicks go this is both smart and suspenseful.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
Creepy, cool and loaded with style.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
A painfully slow psychological thriller.
Read Full Review
58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
It's regrettable that Joshua veers into outlandish "Omen/Bad Seed/Good Son" territory when the real terror lies much closer to home.
Read Full Review
50
New York Magazine David Edelstein
The line between eeriness and tedium is fatally fluid.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
So what's wrong with Joshua? Two things: The audience is ahead of the movie, and the movie never catches up.
Read Full Review
50
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Joshua is the sort of movie in which nobody does what you would do: like spank or demand an extra-strength time out.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Matt R gave it a0:
This movie was worse than Gus Van Sants' Gerry. Anyone who considers this kind of crap art needs to put down their macbook and starbucks and step into a museum.

James M. gave it a10:
Beautiful cinematography and overall one of the better movies of the year imo. And to all those who are crucifying this movie for having a flawed main character; a flawed character doesn't mean a flawed movie or plot (go read any Greek tragedy you under-cultured C.H.U.D.s) I'm not undervaluing the opinion of those who didn't think this movie was fabulous, but please find a better reason to dislike it than, 'the main character was a jerk to his family'...

benjamin d gave it a10:
Never before has a film touched on so many levels; in particular man's journey through young adulthood. Sean Penn's ability to capture raw emotion and transcend it through seemingly "real-life" experiene has left me breathless. For anyone who wants to take a journey which may help re-define your own life, you must see this film:) Thank you to all who played a part in the making of this masterpiece.

Mikey O. gave it a1:
Don't bother with this movie! Some of the performances are okay, but nothing can overcome a bad script! This film is poorly plotted, uninvolving, and just plain stupid. I saw this dud in a movie theater with exactly three other audience members (a hit it's not), and we all groaned when it was over. If you're looking for a good psychological thriller, you're out of luck--this movie was a huge disappointment. I've seen better movies on "Lifetime"!

Daniel W gave it a7:
Anyone who has had children will get cold sweats from the movie's first act. The anxiety-ridden nights in which even silence seems ominous, the fear that there is somehow something "wrong" with a baby who just will not stop crying, and the growing suspicion that one will simply not be up to the task -- it's all rendered here in pitch-perfect manner. Unfortunately, a movie cannot survive on mere ambiance, and so the filmmakers introduce a plot that often leads them into absurdity. But they create some genuine flesh-crawling moments along the way.

hughie gave it an8:
Well constructed and well acted.It does require intelligence and patience from the viewer however!

DWilly gave it a3:
The metacriitic amateur reviewers have this turkey pegged for the disappointment it is as the professionals once again overrate an unscarey movie for how they wish it would have been (see 1408, no wait, don't see it, it stinks!). The boy is kept in a buttoned up shirt, often with a tie, ewwww... but, as a robot without motivation of any kind, he's a total bore. Vera Farmiga fails to be compelling before she disappears into a looney bin halfway through, and this leaves the movie in the incapable hands of Sam Rockwell, good at smirking, but a leading man he is not.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Miley Cyrus | MLB | iPhone 3G | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use