The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 11
  3. Negative: 1 out of 11
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  1. Total Film
    Reviewed by: Neil Smith
    Sep 16, 2012
    80
    Nods to "Hostel" and "Glengarry Glen Ross" make for a cine-literate affair further buffered by a smart cameo from erstwhile Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    Sep 20, 2012
    75
    Deadpan and a bit dopey, Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best has a shaggy charm, and the chemistry between the tuneful twosome's would-be Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty makes up for the inevitable rock-and-roll road movie cliches.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    Sep 27, 2012
    70
    Although the sentiment threatens to flatten out an intriguingly nervy vibe, Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best has plenty of rhythmic charm about its responsibility-challenged strivers.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Sep 21, 2012
    63
    Initially, this low-budget film writes a lot of checks on the First National Bank of Whimsy, but I was astonished when none of them bounced.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Andy Webster
    Sep 20, 2012
    60
    Inner child? Open road? No, this film is actually about Mr. O'Nan and his wan, scruffy innocence.
  6. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Peter Bradshaw
    Sep 16, 2012
    60
    The comedy is at odds, perhaps even at war, with the gravitational downward pull of bittersweet seriousness, and the sucrose content is pretty high by the end. But it's an entertaining film.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    Sep 28, 2012
    58
    This ode to indie legitimacy proves to be too cartoonish to feel real and not outrageous enough to be memorable.
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Sep 18, 2012
    50
    O'Nan and Weston's rapport is engagingly prickly but their "Shins meets Sesame Street" tunes have a tweeness also found in the director's music montages and lens flares. Only in its even-handed treatment of Alex's fundamentalist-Christian brother (Andrew McCarthy) does the film feel like something less than a corny cornucopia of manchildren-grow-up clichés.
  9. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: R. Emmet Sweeney
    Sep 18, 2012
    40
    This is strictly an amateur-hour affair.
  10. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Hughes
    Sep 16, 2012
    40
    Good fun, but O'Nan doesn't take this film nearly as far as it could go, leaving the plot and its characters somewhat two-dimensional in their obvious stereotyping.
  11. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Diego Costa
    Sep 20, 2012
    12
    The film has, at its source, a pool of affectations that so often constitute, or plague, American indie films--and, perhaps, American culture more generally.

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User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. SamiYusuf
    10
    This film held the ability to leave a smile on my face days after initially watching it. I find it rare for a film to stick with me to the degree that the Brooklyn brothers were able to. Despite other reviews read, this is not just another indie flick ticking the same quota, with it bringing so much heart and soul, even having me in stitches at parts, through some of the brilliantly written dialogue. Many critics downplay films in order to put across their own egotistical knowledge (or lack of) of film. Yet these are probably the same people putting aside cinema money, just to see a new fast and furious movie released every 3 weeks. If you really want to watch something that will leave you smiling for days, like me, then give this a go.

    Oh, and the music's gunna blow you away.    … Full Review »