New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
xx Baby on Board
xx Bob Funk
62 Cherry Blossoms
38 Confessions of a Shopaholic
38 Crossing Over
38 Dark Streets
58 Defiance
45 Fanboys
31 Fired Up
37 Forever Strong
34 Friday the 13th
72 Gran Torino
47 He's Just Not That Into You
47 Inkheart
52 International, The
45 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
50 Madea Goes to Jail
51 Morning Light
51 My Bloody Valentine 3-D
29 New in Town
28 Nobel Son
40 Outlander
39 Paul Blart: Mall Cop
56 Phoebe in Wonderland
36 Pink Panther 2
xx Powder Blue
69 Revolutionary Road
20 Spinning Into Butter
17 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
63 Tokyo!
74 Two Lovers
56 Valkyrie
91 Waltz with Bashir
22 What Goes Up

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Sonny
Samuel Goldwyn Films


7.6

based on 9 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality, language, some drug use and violence

Starring James Franco, Brenda Blethyn, Mena Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton, Brenda Vaccaro, Scott Caan, Seymour Cassel, and Nicolas Cage

The story of a young man, Sonny (Franco), living in New Orleans and trained to follow the family tradition as a paid male prostitute for wealthy women.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	John Carlen
DIRECTED BY:	Nicolas Cage
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 19, 2003 Video: August 19, 2003 Theatrical: December 27, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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...

Variety Lisa Nesselson

Besides "Midnight Cowboy" and "American Gigolo," there aren't many mainstream movies centered on straight male prostitutes. Sonny is a worthy, if indie-style, addition to the list.

USA Today Mike Clark

While compellingly watchable, it's as overheated as Cage-the-actor's 1991 soft-core (and direct-to-video) "Zandalee," also set in New Orleans.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The day-to-day realities, especially economic, of Sonny and Jewel's lives could have been more fully detailed to good effect, and Cage might have also have risked setting off the tenderness of his storytelling with an edgier style. Even so, few films take the viewer by surprise with such emotional impact as Sonny.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Amid the cliché and foreshadowing, Cage manages a degree of casual realism.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's just plain lurid when it isn't downright silly, and that "drunk cam," a blurred, cockeyed lens through which Sonny's soused point-of-view is shown, is just a terrible idea.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Emotionally incoherent.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An instant candidate for worst movie of the year.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Shows what can happen when a bunch of good actors get together without adult supervision. They emote all over the place, banging into each other, talking too loud, knocking over furniture, wallowing in clichés and otherwise behaving like rank amateurs.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Preposterous and tedious, Sonny is spiked with unintentional laughter that, unfortunately, occurs too infrequently to make the film even a guilty pleasure.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Douglas R. gave it a10:
Extremely well done and one of the year's best films!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Sonny Samuel Goldwyn Films

Sonny
Samuel Goldwyn Films