- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
90Elegant, funny and unexpectedly touching, this whodunit about a murder aboard the yacht of William Randolph Hearst represents a bracing comeback for Peter Bogdanovich.
-
90An elegant drama about power and its frightening uses, The Cat's Meow is the bee's knees.
-
83Peter Bogdanovich taps deep into the Hearst mystique, entertainingly reenacting a historic scandal.
-
80Relatively accurate as a period piece, looks great and boasts a bevy of vintage numbers, some original recordings and others performed in an authentic manner by Ian Whitcomb and His Bungalow Boys.
-
80Playful and sporty, with just a small twist of the knife, The Cat's Meow is good, uncomplicated fun.
-
80It's vastly enjoyable in a low-down, scandal-mongering way.
-
80If it speaks with a quieter voice than many of Bogdanovich's early pictures, what it has to say seems substantially more personal and thoughtful.
-
75The film is darkly atmospheric, with Herrmann quietly suggesting the sadness and obsession beneath Hearst's forced avuncular chortles. Dunst is as good, in her way, as Dorothy Comingore in "Citizen Kane" in showing a woman who is more loyal and affectionate than her lover deserves.
-
75Bogdanovich takes a tale of old Hollywood and infuses it with velocity and enthusiasm.
-
75Could have been -- and should have been -- richer and more resonant. It's Hollywood Babylon Lite, only TV movie-deep. But at least it's tangy.
-
75Isn't quite good enough to elicit a purr, but it represents better-than-average movie-making that doesn't demand a dumb, distracted audience.
-
75Bogdanovich adds touches to appeal to serious film fans.
-
75The fact is no one has a better understanding of the corruption of ego and power, or is more qualified to encapsulate it in a defining moment of Hollywood Gothic.
-
70If there were any justice in the world, The Cat's Meow would be the beginning of the rehabilitation of Davies' image.
-
70Faithfully recreates a bygone era of larger-than-life filmmakers and stars.
-
70A better-than-competent period evocation that allows the director to flaunt his knowledge (and perhaps vent some of his own bitterness) regarding Hollywood.
-
70A modest, restrained picture, as small and satisfying as one of Woody Allen's better recent efforts.
-
70Bogdanovich has been so smooth and loving in his directorial attentions that he has forgotten to give the tragical farce proceedings any terrible momentum.
-
63The movie leaves us with the image of rich folks frantically dancing the Charleston because if they stop, they'll have nothing. The point is as untrue as it is simplistic.
-
63For all its charms, sometimes feels as self-obsessed as the characters it slyly mocks.
-
63But even if The Cat's Meow is unsubtle and overlong, in its jaundiced way it convincingly captures a fascinating period in Hollywood history.
-
63The film is better on mood than on message, sharply etching the professional desperation behind the forced gaiety.
-
63The result is good gossip, entertainingly delivered, yet with a distinctly musty odour, its expiry date long gone.
-
60Overall, the film feels a little stiff, perhaps because screenwriter Steven Peros adapted his own stage play. But the performances are a delight, especially Dunst's effervescent turn as Marion Davies.
-
60While certainly an entertaining and intriguing film, one simply can't get past the notion that we're watching semi-famous actors pretending to be their more famous characters.
-
58Swell when it purrs, when the three top stars are in full form, but it spits and hisses and screeches too often to take full hold.
-
50Resembles the yacht where it takes place. Everything is arranged for fun, pleasure, and amusement. But the vehicle itself is heavy and cumbersome, and it takes a tad too long to get us where we're going.
-
50Dunst makes Davies the most confident and interesting person aboard the Oneida and makes this voyage almost, but not quite, worth taking.
-
50This movie's biggest contribution to film history will be resurrecting Davies' reputation as a natural comedian stuck in deadly costume pictures because her lover wanted her placed on a pedestal.
-
50As a period mystery, however, it's as muddy and swirling as the actual record of that fateful, deadly weekend cruise.
-
40Curiously uninvolving. It never comes to life -- even after someone is found dead. Nevertheless, there are pleasures to be found in the performances, particularly in Eddie Izzard's lovelorn Chaplin and Edward Herrmann's paranoid Hearst.
-
40An inert, respectable bore.
-
40The result is tiresome and tone-deaf and a disappointing comeback for Bogdanovich.
-
30The script is dead in the water, and most of the misanthropic repartee rings resoundingly false.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
There are no user reviews yet.