Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
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.
Wonder Boys
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 15 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Michael Chabon (novel)
Steven Kloves
Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 25, 2000
DVD: March 13, 2001
Running Time: 112 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / Japan / Germany / UK
Summary
RATING: R for language and drug content
Starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Rip Torn, and Robert Downey Jr.
Grady Tripp (Douglas) is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years -- not since he wrote his award-winning Great American Novel seven years ago. It's hardly surprising, then that his college's annual literary festival fills the former wonder boy with more than his usual quota of self-doubt and anxiety. This festival weekend, however, proves even worse than he could have imagined as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy, his most gifted writing student James Leer (Maguire). (Paramount Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 8 Mile In Her Shoes L.A. Confidential Losin' It Lucky You
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The most accurate movie about campus life that I can remember.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
A giddy delight, with Michael Douglas delivering what may be the most relaxed and inventive performance of his career, and Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr. trailing not far behind.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
One of the most joyous, diverting and original mainstream American movies in years.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Amy Taubin
Downey, who radiates more energy doing nothing discernible than most other actors do when they let it all hang out, takes the film to another level.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Massively inventive, Wonder Boys is spiked with fresh, perverse humor that flows naturally from the straight-faced playing.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A handsomely mounted, graceful production that is well-played across the board.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
Well-crafted scenes that carry a bracingly grown-up tang: unhurried, played in a low key, with plenty of time to savor the details of character and place.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
The first more-than-halfway-decent movie of a new millennium.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
An often-wondrous comedy, just as rich and surprising as "L.A. Confidential" but considerably less dark.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
A terrific movie about middle-age malaise and a comedy of unusual wit and drollness.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
This is certainly the best studio movie of the new year to date, and Douglas might even be remembered at next year's Oscars.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The casting of Michael Douglas against type as an over-the-hill novelist and writing professor is the sort of clever move that wins undeserved Oscars.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Maguire and Douglas are extraordinary (though Douglas feels a little old for his role, which seems to have been written for a man in his early 40s); even Downey Jr. delivers a sharp, understated performance.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
With a cast this terrific and a story this rich and wry, Wonder Boys really can't miss, even if it thumps to an underwhelming and moralistic ending that undoes a fair amount of its goodwill.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Michael Douglas digs deep and delivers one of his best performances in Wonder Boys -- a comic dazzler of roguish wit and touching gravity that is driven by characters, not jokes.
Newsweek David Ansen
(Douglas) is a superb (and underused) comic actor, one who knows that the secret of being funny is never begging for a laugh.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Among the movie's oddball treats are Robert Downey Jr. as Grady's flamboyant editor and Rip Torn as a pedantic author and sermonizer known only as Q.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Lovely performances from McDormand, Downey and Richard Knox, who looks uncommonly like Little Richard, as a bar owner named Vernon Hardapple.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
With a wistful look at the wages of ambition and the failure of promise, Wonder Boys finally celebrates self-awareness, ending on a muted, quietly moving note of triumph.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Sarah Raskin
See Wonder Boys for the acting, particularly McDormand and Maguire, but use the goofy moments to get popcorn refills.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Except for moments of labored symbolism and a too cozy ending, the movie stays sharply focused on its well-chosen targets.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A wonderfully rumpled, loose comedy about the paralyzing fear of failure.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
The smartest movie to come out this year, and it could hardly be better cast.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Plenty of fun while it lasts, but its aftereffects are mighty fleeting.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
For those seeking even a little adventurousness in their filmgoing experiences, the movie will wear thin very quickly.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Sweet, flaky, and more than a little aimless.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The sentimentality overtakes Wonder Boys when, in the last half hour, it tries to make nice with its characters and fashion a deep message from a trivial story.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
As detached and unfocused as a college pothead. And about as much fun.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The pulse of Curtis Hanson's direction is lethargic; the comic bits are so slack and deadpan you could mistake the film for an earnest drama--an Afterschool Special for troubled kids and their pooped parents.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
While the story takes some clever turns, its psychology is far from convincing and its momentum flags long before the finale.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
With so much going for it, how could the movie be such a dud?
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The sad truth is that Wonder Boys is little more than a sentimentalized encomium to the disheveled, childish life it ascribes to writers.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Damien C. gave it a 10:
There are films that talk to me more than others. Because some pictures,situations, musics and dialogues combined together make me feel so good that it seemed to have been written just for me, as if the writers knew me. Every scene of "Wonder Boys" is like that for me. It's funny, smart, moving. I don't care if some people find it stereotypical or mindless. It's one of the best film I've ever seen in my life. Michael Douglas, Downey Jr., Maguire, Holmes, McDormand, they're all great. The scenes with the teacher and the student wandering in Pittsburgh, looking for themselves, are fantastic. Curtis Hanson is one of the best. I love this movie.
raVen gave it a 10:
(11) One of my two favorite movies. So, clearly, it's one of the two best movies ever made. Every bit of it serves to build toward what happens next, and the whole movie hangs on nuance, conversation, and reaction--just like real life. It's got a great soundtrack, the funniest car crash you'll ever see, and a trunk that holds a tuba, a suitcase, a dead dog and a garment bag almost perfectly. Flawless.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 7:
Engaging and entertaining but what's this movie about? I can't tell as Michael Douglas didn't convince me for a second that he was a Literary professor and novelist.
Jack gave it a 10:
Wonderfully offbeat.
Didn't you used to be Gilbert Mulroneycakes? gave it a 10:
"Stereotypical"? Oh, please. Too easy. Far, far too easy. They're actually startlingly accurate and utterly brilliant characters, and to suggest otherwise is an assault on my dignity and my family. Michael Douglas gives one of his best performances, but Tobey Maguire and the marvellous Downey between them steal EVERY SINGLE SCENE they have. The scenes with both are a veritable tug-of-war. Great, overlooked film.
Paul F. gave it a 10:
Quite possibly the best movie of that year. There is no other film that can deliever so much comedy, and character complexity in such a neat, simple package. Bravo Curtis Hanson and bravo to Michael Chabon for creating the inspiration for this movie.
Michael C. gave it an 8:
Actual rating: 8.5 out of 10. Stunningly smart and endlessly enjoyable, Wonder Boys is a great follow-up for Curtis Hanson. But it hasn't got the touch that "L.A. Confidential" has. Still highly recommendable!
