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.

United States of Leland, The

EMAILPRINTParamount Classics

United States of Leland, The reviews
37
6.9 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Crime  |  Drama

Written by: Matthew Ryan Hoge

Directed by: Matthew Ryan Hoge

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 2, 2004
DVD: September 7, 2004

Running Time: 105 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language and some drug content

Starring Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Lena Olin, Kevin Spacey, Michelle Williams, and Martin Donovan

On an ordinary school day in California, a seemingly ordinary student named Leland Fitzgerald (Gosling) commits a devastating, inexplicable crime...and changes everything forever...not only for Leland but his family, friends and the teacher who becomes obsessed with trying to figure out why. (Paramount Classics)

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 Eric Campos

Thoroughly entertaining and will possibly get you thinking about certain choices you've made in your life.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

A compelling, exquisitely acted drama about the shock waves emanating from -- and toward -- a single act of almost inexplicable violence.

Read Full Review >
63

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A tale of disaffection, devastation and epiphanies of the catastrophic kind.

Read Full Review >
60

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A complex and often compelling melodrama, at times almost verging on soap opera.

Read Full Review >
50

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Only Chris Klein, as the lovesick live-in boyfriend of Becky's sister, is given anything like an active emotional arc to play, and he runs with it so beautifully that he steals the movie.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

In his thoughtfully paced, well-acted film, Hoge doesn't set out to solve the "why" of Leland's ghastly crime. He's more interested in examining the reason why society needs to create and interpret a reason for horror.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The screenplay aims high in terms of humanity and complexity, but director Hoge drains it of energy with listless meanderings that provide more yawns than insights.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I believe it is as cruel and senseless as the killings in "Elephant," but while that film was chillingly objective, this one seems to be on everybody's side. It's a moral muddle.

Read Full Review >
50

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The finished film, while competently acted and staged, has missed the high mark Spacey set for it. It's self-important, tedious and ultimately pointless, with absolutely none of the sardonic wit that remains the most memorable feature of "American Beauty."

Read Full Review >
50

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Hoge's film raises more questions than it answers – that's his point, I think, to get us thinking – and Gosling, who previously played the conflicted Jewish Nazi skinhead in "The Believer," inhabits the role of Leland so fully it's as if the character had killed him as well.

Read Full Review >
42

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The result is a frustrating and disturbing mishmash of vague philosophical noodling, which even the best-chosen cast can't imbue with zip.

Read Full Review >
40

Empire Anna Smith

It's poetic, hypnotic and well-performed, but fails to either draw out its characters with conviction or fully draw its audience in.

Read Full Review >
40

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The characters' undiluted self-interest will seem one-dimensional to all but the worst cynics.

Read Full Review >
40

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Fatuous twaddle posing as a REALLY DEEP consideration of what's wrong with our crazy, mixed-up world, Matthew Ryan Hoge's slick but deeply dumb film unfolds in a picture-perfect suburb of Anywheresville, USA.

Read Full Review >
40

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An ambitious and intelligent film probing that chronic contemporary phenomenon, the seemingly senseless crime, but it is ultimately unsatisfying for all its efforts and various pluses.

Read Full Review >
40

Variety David Rooney

Hoge shows no particular directorial style, bringing a bland, anonymous look to the generic Southern California suburban locations.

Read Full Review >
40

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Hoge, who scripted and directed The United States Of Leland, caters to his cast too much. He gives almost every character a way-too-involved subplot, which distracts from the heart of his story.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

There's a reason filmmaking is considered a craft, and Hoge, a former teacher in a juvenile prison, cannot pull off what would be a tricky proposition for a skilled veteran.

Read Full Review >
38

Premiere Peter Debruge

Absence of motive makes the movie provocative; the explanation renders it irrelevant and defuses any interesting debate the film might have inspired.

Read Full Review >
38

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The United States of Leland has a resonance of "Elephant" without the visual poetry or structural sophistication, or "American Beauty" without the leavening comedy, but it's neither an insightful nor well-made film.

Read Full Review >
30

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

It's flapping its wings so desperately in pursuit of artistic heights that it nosedives directly into the ground. The relentless exertion makes the film a chore to watch.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Desson Thomson

There's something secondhand about everything here. Hoge (this is his debut) seems to be mimicking the tone and fabric of other, better indie movies.

Read Full Review >
30

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The movie's idiotic fascination with the senselessness of its central act is scarily close to a fetish.

Read Full Review >
30

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The real question raised by The United States of Leland is not why, but how. How, that is, did so many talented actors find their way to this dreary and derivative study in suburban dysfunction?

Read Full Review >
25

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The United States of Leland is tedious yet infuriating, since its characters, all of whom seem to have emerged from a screenwriter's manual, are like exhibits in a thesis meant to indict the middle class for the crime of its collective dysfunction.

Read Full Review >
25

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This bomb, which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, belongs in the same remainder bin as Spacey's "Pay It Forward," "K-Pax" and "The Life of David Gale."

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

As bad as its title.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes

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

Miguel G. gave it a3:
The film does not tell anything, does not have any insight in any particular issue and it definitely has no complexity. Nothing to save apart of Kevin Sapcy's acting.

Andrew D. gave it a10:
Absolutly fantastic film....will make you think

HollyC. gave it a5:
I understand the bad reviews of this film, as the dialogue, various outskirt characters and plot points fell apart. This film feels very writerly--like a good short story or novel (indeed, writer themes/characters are everywhere)--but it was ultimately adapted very poorly into a motion picture. Regardless of these problems, I do find that Ryan Gosling and Don Cheadle did remarkably well. The moral debate going on in this film--while engaging, is quite sophmoric in the end, which is too bad. The comparison one user review made to Donnie Darko, I think, is a bit generous as Darko was very well written, acted and directed. This film had some great actors--the direction was ok but the writing and plot devices fell through. The story, in the end, did seem muddled--and possibly better looking on paper then screen.

Larry J gave it an8:
[***SPOILERS***] Professional critics, for the most part, missed the point of this movie. Why did Leland do it? In the first part of the movie we are led to think that there might have been a motivation akin to what we might find in Camus' "The Stranger": I just wanted to see what it'd feel like. However, as the movie progresses, and we are given more insight into Leland's psyche, we discover that he is deeply troubled. His perceptions of the world as full to the brim of profound sadness reveal his inadequate grasp of reality. His comiseration with some of the afflicted is what leads him to do it. Leland's killing is a mercy killing. He took himself to be helping, not hurting. When Leland perceives the kid eyeing a woman, Leland knows that the desire will go forever unsatisfied. When Leland sees the kid trying to ride through the tree, he sees that though the kid may want to progress, there are obstacles that will never allow it. Leland commits a mercy killing. Has he done something wrong? Of course. Does he deserve our pity? Yes. Have any critics who panned this movie understood it's subtle take on the complexity of desire and motivation? No!

elizabeth m gave it an8:
This was a great movie! Yeah a little confusing, but still really great. And so was Ryan Gosling in this movie. USL was also a learning experience!

Kuo T. gave it an8:
The United States of Leland is, at the very least, full of talented actors that made their characters come to life, especially Leland. Other characters, even with brief parts, are well-developed. The movie raised many questions but did not provide answers for them. It does get you think about life in a different way. There are some memorable scenes in the movie that I can definite replay again and again.

Robert A gave it a3:
Well, i really wanted to like this film. But, it just isn't good. Written like a bad book.

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