W.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

W., a biography of President Bush, is fascinating. No other word for it.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

You'll be disappointed if you expect famed leftist Oliver Stone to apply a coup de grace to this man.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Seems a much more even-handed and thoughtful take on the man than anyone might have expected.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

A measured and thoughtful meditation on a leader who, this terrific movie believes, inadvertently made the world as roiling as his soul.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The pleasure of Mr. Stone's work has never been located in restraint but in excess, a commitment to extremes that can drown out the world or, as in this film, give it newly vivid, hilarious and horrible form.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

In the end, W. makes up in immediacy what it lacks in objectivity.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An often compelling, tragicomic psychological analysis of Dubya, viewed through the prism of his relationship with an allegedly disapproving father.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

In the end it depicts its subject as lost, and pitiable--like Richard Nixon, but more a pawn than a dark knight.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The performances are good (some scarily realistic), and the movie is enjoyable to watch. But as a probing analysis of the 43rd president, it falls short.

Slate Dana Stevens

Like Tina Fey's Sarah Palin, Stone's George Bush gets his best lines straight from the source.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

W. is not a dispassionate biography; it is an interpretation of personality intersecting with history, and as a piece of drama it is persuasive and perfectly creditable.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

When it works, W. can take your breath away. When it doesn't, you can feel Stone still working out his feelings toward the man.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Passably interesting, occasionally riveting and largely superfluous. But it's certainly a worthwhile curiosity, and it's not what anyone expected. At the movies these days, that alone is worth something.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Whatever you think of Dubya, he has balls. The movie doesn't.

Newsweek David Ansen

Like all Stone movies, W. has energy and forward momentum--particularly in the pre-presidential sections, when Bush is in his loose-cannon phase. It's not boring, and Brolin is often remarkable.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

W. is the kind of film that demands discussion and only then can we start to decipher what Stone's intentions are towards our President.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's when Stone engages in shameless editorializing -- when he lets his freak-flag point of view fly, rather than tempering it -- that W. is most entertaining and most vital. The rest of the time it feels too much like awards bait: stiff, arch and knowing.

NPR Bob Mondello

A surprisingly unsurprising film.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Stone paddles down the giant river of Bush's life without exploring any of the tributaries; he passes by two or three dozen better movies along the way.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The intrepid one is the outstanding Josh Brolin, who does such a phenomenal job in the title role that he carries every scene he's in to a place of subtlety and integrity far beyond what Stone needs to make his attention-grabbing noise.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

In our age of 24-hour news coverage, this rehashing of current events doesn't just come off familiar but completely unnecessary. And, worst of all, prosaic.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

In spite of Josh Brolin's heroic efforts, W. is a skin-deep biopic that revels in its antic shallowness.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Superficial, uninformative, and inert, this two hour snoozefest isn't even inflammatory enough to stoke a righteous anti-Bush brushfire. W. does for recent history what Oliver Stone's epic "Alexander" did for ancient times.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Unlike the filmmaker's previous stabs at presidential biopic-ing and conspiracy theorizing - "JFK" and "Nixon" - this one doesn't have the luxury of historical perspective.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

It's a gutsy movie but not necessarily a good one. Its greatest strength is that it wants to talk about what's on our minds right now and not wait for historians.

Variety Todd McCarthy

For a film that could have been either a scorching satire or an outright tragedy, W. is, if anything, overly conventional, especially stylistically.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

None of it is new, nor is the recycled stuff presented in a newly revealing context.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

It's most entertaining for its stunt casting of movie stars as the president's family and advisers.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Stone may think he's made a movie about the toxicity of the Bush presidency, but what we have instead is a cautionary tale of a decidedly lower order. As far as I can make out, the real message of W. is: Don't vote for anybody who talks with his mouth full of food.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

W. isn't gripping enough as drama or witty enough as satire. It's neutered.

The New Yorker David Denby

Richard Dreyfuss, hunching over and baring his teeth like a shark cruising off a Martha's Vineyard beach, does a wicked impersonation of Cheney. His relish for the part suggests that the movie should have been done not as an earnest bio-pic but as a satirical comedy -- as a contemporary "Dr. Strangelove," with a cast of satyrs and clowns.

Empire Helen O'Hara

Disappointing. Stone whipped this out in time for the US Presidential election, but it’s hard to see how it’ll make any significant impact on voters. Or why it even should.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Why this movie -- a rushed, wildly uneven, tonally jumbled caricature -- and why now?

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A painful movie to endure.

Time Richard Corliss

The movie is an X-ray of an invisible man -- by the film's end, the W. still stands for Who?

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie plays like a dunk-the-clown game at a carnival. Through intent or ineptitude, he sets up the Bush family and administrations as caricatures.