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90Wonderful...It's funny and offbeat, sometimes raucous, but it still manages to come at you in gentle layers.
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90Entertaining as it often is, Outside Providence feels as if it were a collection of installments from an unusually raunchy television series.
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90Corrente's gift for evoking the lives of blue-collar men that made his debut film, "Federal Hill," so appealing blends perfectly with the antic sensibility of the Farrellys.
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Eminently likable...a splendid performance from Alec Baldwin in a far cry from his usual roles.
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88It's much closer to a European film in sensibility than to one of Hollywood's factory products.
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80Baldwin's perfectly impacted performance as a tough-love provider (the actor gets some of the best lines in the movie).
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80Gets a lot of the details right. Outside Providence is a sweet, funny little movie.
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78Beguiling performances and a story that veers between social observations, period detail, and genuine humor make this movie an end-of-the-summer stand-out.
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Like Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," Outside Providence reminisces vividly, recalling the era fondly but not with too much sugar.
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75It stands apart when it comes to its extravagant humor and non-judgmental '70s-era reality (smoking dope, hitching rides, playing Frisbee, hanging out).
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75Despite its familiar formula, feels fresh.
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75Everything comes up forced and predictable in the nostalgic overload of bongs, Top 40 rock and boys' bluster about sex.
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75Possesses memorable portrayals of thoroughly original characters and draws a beguilingly bleak portrait of its Rhode Island settings.
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70Meanwhile Baldwin (bulked up a la DeNiro and playing totally against type), is a revelation, funny and touching.
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70Baldwin is a marvel in a casting surprise that pays off.
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70Cross "Rushmore" with "Cheech and Chong" and you might get Outside Providence.
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63Peter Farrelly is angry at Miramax for marketing his and his brother Bobby's new film as a follow-up to their surprise smash hit, "There's Something About Mary."
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60Surprisingly tender and resolutely unpostmodern.
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60Entertaining as it often is, Outside Providence feels as if it were a collection of installments from an unusually raunchy television series.
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60Fitfully amusing but nothing remarkable
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58The standout is Baldwin, utterly convincing as a gruff cuss whose life has been forever stained by the death of his wife.
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58Outside of a smart performance by Shawn Hatosy as Tim Dunphy, there just isn't much that's enlightening or new in this intimate recollection.
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50The story is lively and energetic, if you can take its raunchy jokes and rowdy behavior.
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50Aggressively bland coming-of-age story.
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50Reeks of the kind of atmosphere that makes you reach for the Lysol.
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45Little more than an amusing, predictable story we've seen done better a dozen times.
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42This unexceptional 1970s coming-of-age story is neither outrageous, new, nor comedic.
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38So unsuccessful in so many different ways that maybe the whole project was doomed.
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Just another in a long line of blue-collar-kid-at-prep-school movies, and it may be the worst of the lot. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is original in this movie.
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35Plays like mediocre outtakes from better bell-bottomed fare (Richard Linklater's authentic, seriocomic "Dazed and Confused"; Fox's "That '70s Show") without making any kind of impression of its own.
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30A disappointingly rote entry in the '70s teen nostalgia sweepstakes.
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30Smug, uninsightful light drama.