Room for Romeo Brass, A

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The most poignant (if hard-hitting) depiction of childhood to show up this year.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Indeed, one of the nicest things about this jewel of a film is that there isn't much of a story at all -- just a handful of delicately drawn characters moving through life that is at once familiar and yet slightly elevated by a director who loves the good in people more than the bad.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An assured, graceful instance of effective screen storytelling, and Meadows draws splendid performances from his cast, especially from the young Shim and Marshall.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

By turns amusing, touching and horrifying, A Room For Romeo Brass is a film that defies expectation at every turn.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

Offers an honest, understated and unsentimental look at a small incident in the course of a friendship - but it is the kind of incident that defines most childhoods.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A quirky little film with an offbeat trajectory that rattles through the bones of story with eyes open to the texture of experience and the dimensions of character.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Effortless in the way it insinuates itself into these families, touching in the way it shows how fiercely Romeo and Knocks are, despite everything, their own little men.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

A sense of authenticity overshadows any contrivance in this subtly classic drama.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

It is essentially a personal reminiscence of daily life that captures with an astonishing precision exactly what it felt to be a 12-year- old boy growing up in a particular time and place.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Proceeds with an episodic pace, full of narrative twists and turns that clearly are not pretested by a Hollywood committee. Things feel sort of strange and original all at once.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A bitter, black and oddly beautiful story.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

So low-key it could be mistaken for a throwaway. But Meadows's understanding of childhood fears and fantasies and the yearning, heartfelt performances he draws from his two young actors should not be underestimated.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Meadows is very good with the boys' relationship, and achieves his and Fraser's central goal of showing how childhood bonds can be simultaneously fragile and strong.

Variety Derek Elley

An easygoing kitchen-sink comedy with an unsettling final act.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Fairly shapeless story.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

More and more independent filmmakers seem to be cobbling together characters and scenes that have surface hook and flash without organic emotional logic.

TV Guide Steve Simels

A kitchen-sink realist coming-of-age story in the venerable British tradition, with all the good and bad that entails.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Goes downhill fast.