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Sonny

EMAILPRINTSamuel Goldwyn Films

Sonny reviews
31
7.6 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 9 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: John Carlen

Directed by: Nicolas Cage

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 27, 2002
DVD: August 19, 2003

Running Time: 110 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

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.

What The Critics Said

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...

70

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.

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63

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.

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50

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.

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50

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

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

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40

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.

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30

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Emotionally incoherent.

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25

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An instant candidate for worst movie of the year.

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25

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.

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20

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.

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What Our Users Said

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!

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