| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The most accurate movie about campus life that I can remember.
|
| 100 |
Film.com
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.
|
| 100 |
Portland Oregonian
One of the most joyous, diverting and original mainstream American movies in years.
|
| 100 |
Boston Globe
A sweet screenful of quirky chaos.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
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.
|
| 90 |
Variety
Massively inventive, Wonder Boys is spiked with fresh, perverse humor that flows naturally from the straight-faced playing.
|
| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
A handsomely mounted, graceful production that is well-played across the board.
|
| 90 |
Film.com
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.
|
| 88 |
San Francisco Examiner
The first more-than-halfway-decent movie of a new millennium.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
An often-wondrous comedy, just as rich and surprising as "L.A. Confidential" but considerably less dark.
|
| 83 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A terrific movie about middle-age malaise and a comedy of unusual wit and drollness.
|
| 82 |
Mr. Showbiz
This is certainly the best studio movie of the new year to date, and Douglas might even be remembered at next year's Oscars.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
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.
|
| 80 |
TV Guide
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.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
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.
|
| 80 |
Rolling Stone
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.
|
| 80 |
Newsweek
(Douglas) is a superb (and underused) comic actor, one who knows that the secret of being funny is never begging for a laugh.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
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.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Lovely performances from McDormand, Downey and Richard Knox, who looks uncommonly like Little Richard, as a bar owner named Vernon Hardapple.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
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.
|
| 75 |
TNT RoughCut
Sarah Raskin
See Wonder Boys for the acting, particularly McDormand and Maguire, but use the goofy moments to get popcorn refills.
|
| 75 |
USA Today
Droll mild amusement.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
Except for moments of labored symbolism and a too cozy ending, the movie stays sharply focused on its well-chosen targets.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
A wonderfully rumpled, loose comedy about the paralyzing fear of failure.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
The smartest movie to come out this year, and it could hardly be better cast.
|
| 70 |
Slate
Quite pleasant.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
It's striking on several counts.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Plenty of fun while it lasts, but its aftereffects are mighty fleeting.
|
| 60 |
Film.com
For those seeking even a little adventurousness in their filmgoing experiences, the movie will wear thin very quickly.
|
| 58 |
Entertainment Weekly
Sweet, flaky, and more than a little aimless.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
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.
|
| 50 |
Dallas Observer
As detached and unfocused as a college pothead. And about as much fun.
|
| 50 |
Time
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.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
While the story takes some clever turns, its psychology is far from convincing and its momentum flags long before the finale.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
With so much going for it, how could the movie be such a dud?
|
| 40 |
Washington Post
The sad truth is that Wonder Boys is little more than a sentimentalized encomium to the disheveled, childish life it ascribes to writers.
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