Jesus' Son

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The latter element joins with Crudup's excellent acting to make this deliberately scruffy tale a worthwhile experience if you can handle its explicitly sordid subplots.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

An especially compassionate look at human frailty that also never loses sight of the inherent ridiculousness of "the human condition." Jesus' Son is one of this summer's best movies.

LA Weekly Paul Cullum

Wildly funny bum's rush through the existentially absurd, self-engendered peaks and valleys of the junkie's lament.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A mesmerizing film spinning from hilarity to heartbreak.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

In a sea of one-note symphonies, this touching feature is bleak and comic, heartbreaking and affirmative, romantic and tragic, gimlet-eyed and sympathetic, all at the same time.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Floats before your eyes like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The surprise is that, fitted together, these pieces make a completed picture.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

A story of faith and redemption, as viewed through the blurry and bloodshot eyes of a young man.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Jesus' Son surprises me with moments of wry humor, poignancy, sorrow and wildness. It has a sequence as funny as any I've seen this year.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

If you haven't seen his (Crudup's) work before, Jesus' Son could be the one that makes you his biggest disciple.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Another grotty drama about junkie love? Well, yes...I make an exception for Jesus' Son.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If the result doesn't make dazzling watching, it nonetheless has the power to haunt.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It has a nobility and modesty, along with a refreshing lack of cynical attitude, that you rarely find in independent films these days.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An intermittently compelling and occasionally hilarious road movie.

Time Richard Corliss

It's best to see this as a drug buffet. Graze through the vignettes... and you'll find three or four tasty bits to snack on.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Crudup gives a performance that is by turns scary, heartbreaking, grotesque and funny as hell.

The New York Times A. O. Scott

One of the pleasures of Jesus' Son is watching a filmmaker take risks and discover new resources of style.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I don't much like movies about junkies...but this is easily the liveliest and most inventive I've seen since "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989).

Film.com Other (Specify)

Has the edge of black comedy that defines Maclean's sensibility, but it also has a mature new sweetness. And it's certainly one of the best films about the life of an addict since "Drugstore Cowboy."

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The movie will not be for all tastes. Its seedy lifestyles, nonjudgmental attitudes, nonlinear narrative, and central character whose problem is his lack of emotions is definitely nonstandard fare.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A dashing fusion of the literary and the cinematic.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's so wonderfully silly, coarse and down-to-Earth that its radiance sneaks up only over time.

TV Guide Ken Fox

But for all the divine touches, FH is no Jesus, or even his son: He's just another wide-eyed American Adam on the road again, a dazed and confused Huck Finn of the highways.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Makes good use of its actors.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Grim stuff, filled with great sorrow and tragedy, but it's never maudlin or weepy.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Movies about junkies are often brutal to watch, but Jesus' Son has such a light touch, you have little to fear. Little to gain, too.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Transcends ironic grunge-glamour and achieves a beguiling combination of dark comedy and genuine sweetness.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's often a downer, with a sweet but largely passive protagonist.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Meanders as aimlessly as its drugged-out characters.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Does it make it as a movie? Only in fits and starts.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Though Maclean uses every trick available to make up for the missing inner voice, we never get into Crudup's mellow loser like we should. Maclean's got an incisive eye, but it's poised on the outside of the terrarium looking in.