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92
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85
Savages, The
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
81
Juno
81
Bamako
78
Starting Out in the Evening
77
Nanking
74
Orphanage, The
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
Final Season, The
41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
P2
32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
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24
One Missed Call
15
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7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Introducing the Dwights
Warner Independent Pictures
 |
|
MPAA RATING: R for sexual content and language
Starring
Brenda Blethyn,
Khan Chittenden,
Emma Booth,
Richard Wilson,
Frankie J. Holden,
Rebecca Gibney,
Philip Quast,
and
Katie Wall
Introducing the Dwights is a comedy about a mother who tries to come between her son and his coming of age. Tim's mom, Jean, is a bawdy and risqué comedienne still hoping to make it big. His brother Mark helps their mother rehearse for shows. Together, they inhabit a non-traditional household where chaos is the norm, the music is always on, and Jean's larger-than-life personality takes center stage. When Tim meets and falls for Jill, his home becomes a combat zone as his mother fears this new girl, whose name she refuses to remember, will "break up" the unique family unit she's tried so hard to keep together. In this quirky and oftentimes touching tale, Tim must learn to manage the emotions of the women of his life without losing himself in the process. (Warner Independent Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Keith Thompson
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Cherie Nowlan
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 12, 2008
Theatrical: July 4, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
105 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Australia |
Alternative title: Clubland

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...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Among the many strengths of the sweetly touching Introducing the Dwights, a small gem from Australia unearthed at the Sundance Film Festival, is that Jean never becomes Godzilla.

83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Funny and appalling, doting and possessive, petty and selfless, raunchy and righteous, Jeannie is the pivot of the charming, garish, somewhat overwritten Australian comedy Introducing the Dwights.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Director Cherie Nowlan creates vivid personalities for the entire family and exposes the raw nerves of the biting humor.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
It does what all good coming of age movies do, and that makes it a worthy and welcome entry into the genre.

70
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Warm and entertaining enough, with Brenda Blethyn doing a variation on her "Little Voice" vulgarian amid appealing support perfs.

70
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
The movie belongs to Blethyn, who takes a difficult, easily misunderstood role and gracefully cracks it open to reveal what's inside.

67
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Blethyn's performance belongs in another movie, not this bipolar comedy-drama.

63
Miami Herald
Peter Debruge
The dynamic between mother and son is fascinating, with Blethyn creating a character who is more antagonist than villain.

63
New York Post
Kyle Smith
No matter how good Blethyn is at playing up the sweet hurt of a woman who is well on the decline but never made it in the first place, your admiration for her shrieking-and-drinking breakdown scenes is likely to be tested after about the fifth go-round.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
For those seeking an alternative to giant robots and flying wizards, there's an amusing Australian comedy that might be just the right panacea for blockbuster overload.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The script's attempt to splice together a fumbling love story with a portrait of toxic personality disorder feels incongruous, like a serving of porridge flambé au whisky.

50
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Director Cherie Nowlan steers the comedy to a feel-good ending.

50
Chicago Tribune
Sid Smith
The movie successfully balances the sentimental and bittersweet only about half the time. The performances are intelligent and well-crafted, and Blethyn is unmistakably a star performer, attracting attention like a vortex. But she's somewhat miscast here.

50
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Amusing only for its performances, including those of Chittenden and Wilson. The cast cannot hide the movie's derivative shortcomings, which only remind us that we've seen better and funnier elsewhere.

50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
A funny-sad, icky-sweet comedy of family dysfunction.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The film suffers for her (Brenda Blethyn) egocentrism.

50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
If you find a movie with a more annoying central performance than the one given by Brenda Blethyn in Cherie Nowlan's Introducing the Dwights, keep it to yourself.

50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Sometimes Brenda Blethyn is content merely to nibble the scenery. In Introducing the Dwights, a drippy Australian family comedy caper, she chomps it to a pulp until we long for her straightforward monstrosity as a mother in "Little Voice."

40
Wall Street Journal
Joanne Kaufman
Jean's material is so flat-out awful it's amazing she gets hired at all, let alone that she once supposedly had headliner potential. It's a discrepancy that Introducing the Dwights never addresses.

38
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Nothing about this movie works, not the title (it used to be called "Clubland "), not Blethyn's attempt to inject comedy into her rickety stereotype of a character.

38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Quirkiness is as essential to a small indie film as beef stock to French onion soup. But if you don't have enough of any other ingredient, you end up with a watery, barely edible broth.

30
Austin Chronicle
Josh Rosenblatt
As Tim – a character rich in contradictions and psychological possibilities – Chittenden may as well be a cardboard cutout for all the emotional complexity he’s able to muster.

30
Village Voice
Aaron Hillis
With its broad, toothless humor and ham-fisted fits of melodrama, this sitcom-grade embarrassment aims to dethrone "Muriel's Wedding" as the quirky Aussie feel-gooder of all time, except it hurts too much to watch.


The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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