Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

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

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Life of Reilly, The

EMAILPRINTCivilian Pictures

Life of Reilly, The reviews
72
7.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Charels Nelson Reilly
Paul Linke

Directed by: Frank L. Anderson
Barry Poltermann

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 9, 2007

Running Time: 87 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING:

Starring Charels Nelson Reilly

If, in 1940, you had a lobotomized aunt, an institutionalized father, and a racist mother, and were the only gay kid on the block, what do you think the odds would be that you'd end up a Tony winner, a staple of television, and a generational icon? Enter The Life of Reilly. The cliché goes that truth is stranger than fiction. In this case, it is also funnier and more heartbreaking. Charles Nelson Reilly, famous for his game show innuendos and X-Files guest appearances, takes us through his bizarre, star-studded, tragic, hilarious, and ultimately amazing life with a potent blend of tenderness and quick one-liners. The Life of Reilly is an adaptation of Mr. Reilly's acclaimed one-man show and was photographed for the screen during Mr. Reilly's final two performances of his play in North Hollywood, California. (Vagrant 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...

80

Film Threat K.J. Doughton

Check out The Life of Reilly, for a real-life example of carpe diem energy too pure and unrefined to be silenced by discrimination or negative family vibes.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Joe Leydon

With equal measures of prickly wit, gleeful pride and bemused gratitude, Charles Nelson Reilly looks back at his life, and invites his audience to share the view, in this thoroughly engaging filmization of his one-man stage show.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Despite his obvious infirmities, Reilly infuses his performance with a great deal of energy -- frequently shouting his lines for emphasis -- and, of course, perfect comic timing. It's fortunate that we have this filmed record -- directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson -- of a memorable solo performance by a true show business original.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Director Barry Poltermann’s sweet little evocation of a show business career captures Reilly at “the twilight of an extraordinary life,” in Reilly’s words.

Read Full Review >
75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Spellbinding.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Best remembered as the most flamboyant of TV's original "Hollywood Squares" - which is really saying something on a panel that included Paul Lynde.

Read Full Review >
75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

A tender tale of semi-triumph.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The actor holds the stage with his warm humor and emotionally charged anecdotes.

Read Full Review >
75

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

By the time Reilly's shaggy life story winds down, it's hard not to wish he'd been your friend, too.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

If you think of Reilly as little more than a camp icon, you've got a lot to learn.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

Both revealing and evasive.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

This charming, bittersweet 90-minute monologue consists of the actor telling tales of his childhood and early years, when he was an ugly duckling from an uglier family. The anecdotes are bruisingly funny and delivered with clarity and light mockery.

Read Full Review >
70

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The Life of Reilly pays fitting homage to a man who deserves to be remembered for much more than just trading double-entendres with Brett Somers on "The Match Game."

Read Full Review >
70

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Occasionally you see a documentary and it hits you how much you don’t know about someone who was part of your mental landscape.

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly Aaron Hillis

There are the stories of his racist mom, lobotomized aunt, and a TV exec who told him he’d never find work as a homosexual -- and the more charming tale of his Uta Hagen acting class, which yielded nothing but future A-listers (Steve McQueen, Jason Robards, Jack Lemmon and Anne Meara, to name a few).

Read Full Review >
70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Charles Nelson Reilly is still alive, dammit, and boy does he have a story to tell.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

Built around “Save It for the Stage,” a one-man stage show by Charles Nelson Reilly, a showbiz gadfly and Tony Award-winning theater director.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

It's a funny and frequently affecting reminiscence from a man whose TV antics obscured a long, respectable career as a stage actor and director.

Read Full Review >
67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Reilly, in his 70s, takes us through his hilariously awful childhood: Eugene O'Neill as toxic high camp.

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: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use