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
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Straight Story, The

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Straight Story, The reviews
86
8.0 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: John Roach
Mary Sweeney

Directed by: David Lynch

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 15, 1999
DVD: May 9, 2000

Running Time: 111 minutes, Color

Origin: USA / France

Summary

RATING: G for General Audiences

Starring Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill, and Harry Dean Stanton

The true story of Alvin Straight (Farnsworth) who rides his 1961 lawnmower from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, to visit his estranged brother after the latter suffers a stroke.

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

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Its simplicity belies an emotional complexity that will linger in your mind like a gentle dream.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

All the actors are good, but it's Farnsworth's brilliantly simple performance that brings The Straight Story so close to greatness.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A great, haunting film; it affects us in ways we're not used to...it is capable of both lifting our hearts and chilling us to the bone.

Read Full Review >
100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The most atmospheric thing in the movie is Farnsworth's face.

Read Full Review >
100

USA Today Mike Clark

The best news the G rating has had since the ratings system was instituted in 1968.

Read Full Review >
100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Farnsworth's embodiment of old American values, with their combination of delicacy, reserve, and stand-alone independence, is a one-of-a-kind treasure.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A momentously, shockingly moving fit of shape-shifting by a filmmaker grown tired of the macabre.

Read Full Review >
100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A beautiful, appropriately loping little gem about growing older, daring to take risks and follow your heart. That probably sounds corny, and The Straight Story is.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The first time I saw The Straight Story, I focused on the foreground and liked it. The second time I focused on the background, too, and loved it.

Read Full Review >
100

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Straight Story truly is one from the heart, and it is wonderful.

Read Full Review >
91

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Lynch's first movie since ''Blue Velvet'' that truly envelops you in its spell. It's a piece of celestial Americana -- his journey to the light side of the moon.

Read Full Review >
90

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Lynch takes us on a journey of shattering understatement -- a remarkable accomplishment.

90

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

Clear-eyed and open-hearted, The Straight Story (which is based on reality) tells a simple tale, and it does so with a rare, blessed simplicity.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Cuts a path directly to the heart.

Read Full Review >
90

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Switching gears radically, bravely defying conventional wisdom about what it takes to excite moviegoers, Lynch presents the flip side of "Blue Velvet" and turns it into a supremely improbable triumph.

Read Full Review >
88

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Lynch's first G-rated feature, turns out to be one of the year's best films...a wonderful surprise.

Read Full Review >
88

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

If there is any justice in the world, Farnsworth will be remembered at Oscar time.

Read Full Review >
83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

I loved it...Without trying very hard, Farnsworth commands a unique and immensely appealing screen presence that could be called "a compilation of all the great western heroes of the movie past."

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The wonderful Richard Farnsworth plays the lead, and he was clearly born for the part...a highly affecting and suggestive spiritual odyssey.

Read Full Review >
80

Film.com Peter Brunette

Richard Farnsworth shines as Alvin Straight, a role, one gets the feeling, that he has been preparing for all his life.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Emmanuel Levy

Lynch has directed his most satisfyingly disciplined movie.

Read Full Review >
80

Salon.com Charles Taylor

And now in The Straight Story, no director has been so buzzingly alert to the emotional lives of those people or to the beauty of the world they inhabit as David Lynch.

Read Full Review >
80

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Indeed heartwarming, though not simplemindedly so.

Read Full Review >
80

Time Richard Corliss

Alvin's tragic memories give perspective to the triumph of his trek, even as Farnsworth's weathered brilliance makes this movie a G as in gem.

Read Full Review >
80

TV Guide Ken Fox

Oddly enough, this uncharacteristic offering from a director whose name instantly evokes a very particular kind of film -- call it postmodern American gothic -- is also one of his best.

Read Full Review >
79

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Lynch's faith in the kindness of human nature has been renewed, yet thankfully he's never maudlin. Instead, he wins over our emotions with the film's understated beauty.

Read Full Review >
75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

As slow-moving as the voyage it portrays,...a surprisingly complex view of contemporary life beneath its good-natured surface.

Read Full Review >
75

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

An engaging yarn and a moving character study, but it's also a sweet, sad glimpse of everyone's future.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Too mannered and weird around the edges to be convincing.

Read Full Review >
70

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Sunny as The Straight Story appears, Lynch is still defamiliarizing the normal.

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly John Patterson

Inspirational...unfolds gently with an evenness and rural patience.

Read Full Review >
50

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

A snail-paced story in all of its glorious ... slowness.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes

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

D. W gave it a10:
The only film in the history of American cinema that has a fully realized dualistic plot...the clues in this film...as to why Alvin Straight is REALLY going to see on his brother on his tractor, are delivered with a degree of subtle high-art that even most reviewers of this film missed, but to give a hint... Runaway Girl (aka Dorothy from Oz invoking "no place like home" to start the journey) = Human Birth Deer-strike Lady = Human Ambition (with the leering deer symbolizing that which is lost in its wake) Tractor Brakes/House On Fire= Lynch's explanation of what REALLY happened...pay VERY close attention to that scene. The Handymen Dialogue= Human Honesty (as a result of the above) Bartender Scene= Human Accomplishment Graveyard Scene= Impending Mortality Dead Engine Short Of Destination= Deserved Punishment (notice how Alvin accepts this knowing he has earned this fate) and finally, I feel the greatest moment in the Lynch canon... Old Man On Tractor= God Camera Pans Away= Dignity Of Private Confession Immaculate Repair= Sins Forgiven Simply put; the fact this movie was interpreted by dimwitted reviewers as merely a touching G-rated family film of reunion, is a travesty. Lynch unfurls an meticulously crafted tail of symbolism-via-pastoralia...a profound work exhaulting the finest nuances of cinematic understatement. What we have here, is a A+ work of subtle genius, masquerading directly under the noses of self-appointed aficianados, as a B+ family film. Do not be fooled by the unobservant; The Straight Story is on the shortlist for the greatest films ever made....and it's understated avenue of towards that end, one could argue its esoteric-yet-attainable route to it may be the most breathtaking on that shortlist. and finally, in my opinion the finest scene in the Lynch canon.

Jerry C gave it a10:
It is a work without flaw. It celebrates ordinary people.

Sandy V. gave it a10:
no crime,violence,sex. I thought this a very emotional and caring movie.He touched the lives of many people.Anyone rating this movie a 10 are people who care about others and themselves.

Burnie V gave it a0:
I never dreamt there were bad movies without Steven Seagal, it was a horror to sit through.

W W. gave it a10:
I grew up just a few miles from Mount Zion, and this movie takes me back home. It is a real portrayal of the area. People who didn't like this movie just don't get it.

R C. gave it a10:
I used to work at a video store and often tried to convince people to try this movie. It's a hard sell when you try to describe it, but once you see it, you realize it is wonderful.

Victor B. gave it a10:
Just a wonderful thing.

Read more user comments >

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 | Terms of Use