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Pretty Persuasion
Samuel Goldwyn Films / Roadside Attractions


7.8

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Evan Rachel Wood, James Woods, Ron Livingston, Adi Schnall, Jane Krakowski, Selma Blair, Danny Comden, and Elisabeth Harnois

In this sophisticated comedy, Evan Rachel Wood plays Kimberly Joyce, and insanely intelligent, wildly funny, shockingly cruel and sexy-beyond-her-years Beverly Hills teenager who will stop at nothing to become famous. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Skander Halim
DIRECTED BY:	Marcos Siega
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 13, 2005 Theatrical: August 12, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	104 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2005 Sundance Film Festival

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...

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) David Gilmour

It is also extremely well-written in the fearless way of a smarty pants on a roll in the university cafeteria.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

This is a very funny film about a creepy, excruciatingly lonely world.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

An obscene, misanthropic go-for-broke satire, Pretty Persuasion is so gleefully nasty that the fact that it was even made and released is astonishing. Much of it is also extremely funny.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

It's too bad that the satire is not more pointed, because Pretty Persuasion is outrageously funny in short blasts, mainly thanks to James Woods at his most gleefully depraved.

The New Yorker David Denby

The comedy is brutal and paper thin, but that is less bothersome than the ending of the movie, which abruptly changes its tone.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

There is such a thoroughgoing nastiness to the plot and dialogue that the film almost achieves a level of buoyancy.

Empire Dan Jolin

A teenie "To Die For" whose flaws are superceded by a complex, compelling turn from Evan Rachel Wood.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

In a star-making performance, Evan Rachel Wood stars as essentially a younger version of Nicole Kidman's media-age femme fatale from "To Die For," an aspiring 15-year-old actress who hides a sharp, calculating mind behind a façade of vapid, chattering self-absorption.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Kills itself with unrestrained negativism, but almost resuscitates itself with some great comedy.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

So exploitative and misogynistic that its last-minute dramatic turns and pleas for tolerance and understanding come off as manipulative as its heroine.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

If the resulting film doesn't work equally well at all levels, Wood (who starred in "Thirteen") gives an astonishing performance that pushes it most of the way there.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Ms. Wood, who made a potent impression two years ago as a naïve adolescent led astray by a sophisticated and psychotic classmate in "Thirteen," has the whip hand this time around -- and she's wonderfully persuasive. She needs a movie to match.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

So the movie is daring, and well-acted. Yet it isn't very satisfying, because the serious content keeps breaking through the soggy plot intended to contain it.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Tries to be an audacious, irreverent satire about youth culture like "Lord Love a Duck," but most of the laughs get strangled at birth by the uncertainty of Siega's tone.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Only partly successful.

Boston Globe Janice Page

Isn't so much awful as it is self-conscious, overdone, shallow, and just not up to the level of its star.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Pretty Persuasion reminds me of a half-hour TV series that has a great pilot episode, then falls apart in subsequent installments. Movies need to grow and change to keep things interesting; this one is stagnant.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

A film that aspires to join the company of its predecessors--smart, funny satires that skewered the hypocrisy and cruelty of high school life. But it won't. For starters, Pretty Persuasion commits a fatal error: It forgets to side with the students.

Variety Dennis Harvey

An exercise in bad taste that takes itself just seriously enough to be offensive.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

A high school send-up more gleefully incorrect than "Heathers" and considerably less articulate than "Election," Pretty Persuasion is a hand grenade lobbed at no place in particular.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Not funny because it's not true.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Sets out to be a social critique but settles for smug disdain.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Another high school vixen movie, this one with a potty mouth (the vixen) and pretensions of social commentary (the movie), Pretty Persuasion brings to mind a number of other titles, all better.

Washington Post Curt Fields

It just rings false, like having Hannibal Lecter take up vegetarianism.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Most of Halim's script is a laundry list of offensive remarks that he no doubt means to serve as titillating spoof, but none of it's funny or even the least bit provocative, just offensive.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A devastatingly dishonest, tough look at teenage life.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie wants so badly to be mentioned in the same breath as "Heathers" or "Election" that it's not even funny. Really, I mean it, this charred-black comedy is not even funny.

Premiere Peter Debruge

There's enough estrogen gone awry in this bitchy teen comedy to make "Mean Girls" look like a Disney after-school special.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The disingenuous attempt to give the tawdry story some kind of social import only makes the tinny caricatures more insincere, while his erotic display of 15-year-old girls isn't a satire of a sexualized culture, it's just dirty.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a5:
At first, "Pretty Persuasion" seems like a "Heathers"-wanna-be. In both films, the protagonist wants to be a good person. But when we arrive at the final scene, it's hard not to see this mean-spirited teen comedy as a sort of "In the Company of [Teenage Girls]". Kimberly is Chad(Aaron Eckhart in the Neal LaBute film) in a skirt. What happens to Randa(Adi Schnall) is too heavy-handed; too serious a truth about Muslim attitudes towards their girls who besmirch the family's "good" name, in a film that uses the Arab teen as color. And what Brittany(Elisabeth Harnois) performs at a school-play rehearsal is about as unlikely as Meg Ryan's fake orgasm in "When Harry Met Sally". It's very unpleasant. "Pretty Persuasion" also needlessly tells its story in a non-linear fashion, and trades the world of teenage girls for the world of courtrooms to the detriment of the "teen film"-genre it's trying to skewer.

Ariel G. gave it a9:
Very sharp satire about high school life in these current times. Evan Rachel Wood shone in her dual role as the good girl and the schemer. There are parts in this movie which may offend some racial groups, so be wary. Offensive language and simulated sex scenes are featured occasionally - Don't watch it with your parents, unless you want to cringe with embarassment. But do see it if you're a fan of biting comedies and satirical high school movies like Election.

Jane A. gave it a10:
It's Clever and Funny and Harsh. Well-written. Incisive look at highschool and contemporary attitudes.

J S gave it a3:
It's not that it was offensive, it was that it wasn't funny. Michael Hitchcock gave the most laughs and he was only in about 3 scenes. Perhaps it is that he is actually good at comedy? It probably isn't fair to dismiss the rest of the cast as talentless, so maybe it was the direction and screenplay. Speaking of the screenplay, it seemed as if about half the movie was written at a computer and the other half was written at a dart board. Halfway or 2/3rs through it just falls apart into random scenes that make desperate attempts at being meaningful and heartfelt. Only they come off as random and desperate. I think the film's major problem is that it ultimately wasn't absurd or subtle. Cartmen of South Park is funny because he is so extremely offensive. Other comedies are funny because they are subtle and thought provoking. This film sits in between the two; crass as it may be, the offensive material doesn't go far enough. The screenplay writer will say he was trying to make real people, not absurdities. That's fine, but none of these people are at all believable and even if they were, they wouldn't be funny.

na na gave it a10:
Excellent portrayal of issues plaguing modern youth. Many significant themes weave through this must-see (perhaps more than once) film, some subtle, and some not-so-subtle.

Annie M gave it a3:
The only good thing about the film is Evan RAchel Wood but she still can't save the terrible directing.

david o. gave it a9:
Hot, funny, nasty great date movie.

Pretty Persuasion Samuel Goldwyn Films / Roadside Attractions

Pretty Persuasion
Samuel Goldwyn Films / Roadside Attractions