|
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
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Mister Foe
Magnolia Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong sexual content and language
Starring
Jamie Bell,
Ciarán Hinds,
Sophia Myles,
Claire Forlani,
and
Ewen Bremner
Hallam Foe is a troubled young man whose knack for voyeurism paradoxically reveals his darkest fears, and his most peculiar desires. Driven to expose the true cause of his mother’s death, he instead finds himself searching the rooftops of the city of Edinburgh for love. Featuring a lively soundtrack with Franz Ferdinand, Sons and Daughters and Orange Juice among others, Mister Foe is a darkly twisted, entertaining work of magical realism from one of the leading lights of the new Scottish cinema. (Magnolia Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Ed Whitmore
David Mackenzie
Peter Jinks (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
David Mackenzie
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 11, 2008
Theatrical: September 5, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
95 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK |
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...
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Most entertaining comic drama with a great turn by Jamie Bell.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Unlike any coming-of-age movie you've seen before. Equal parts sweet and perverse, this Scottish film is unpredictable in places where it might be twee, and subversively fanciful in others where it might be punishing.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Especially worthwhile for the chemistry between Bell and Myles.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
Were it not for its pat resolutions, Mister Foe might deserve a mention alongside such classic psycho-sexual thrillers as "Vertigo" and "Peeping Tom." Instead, Mackenzie has reined in the strangeness to deliver a conventional, if better than average, mystery.
70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The emotions are as gritty as the Edinburgh locales, and the sex is dark, urgent, and deeply selfish.
70
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Thanks mainly to Bell's abundant charisma, Hallam makes for a strangely likable antihero.
70
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
May not be entirely original or entirely successful, but it's definitely fun to watch.
70
Variety
Derek Elley
Tip-top performances, led by young British thesp Jamie Bell, and a deftly handled tone reflecting all the title teen's confused emotions make Hallam Foe a viewing delight.
70
Village Voice
Vadim Rizov
The whole thing's poised uneasily somewhere between urban fairy tale and actual human psychodrama, never really landing in one place or the other.
70
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
If the extremity of Hallam's temperament tests the limits of our sympathy as well as our credulity, Mr. Bell's ability to seem by turns sweet and scary prevents us from losing interest entirely.
67
Portland Oregonian
Grant Butler
If you've been wondering what Billy Elliot would look like all grown up, naked or in a fetching frock, here's your chance.
60
Film Threat
Matthew Sorrento
This Scottish film often pushes for realism, though its stylish tones fall back on whimsy.
60
Los Angeles Times
Robert Abele
Ultimately Mackenzie's tidy resolutions undercut the psychological depth, but as offbeat coming-of-age yarns go, Mister Foe has a commanding fleetness.
60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Mister Foe flirts too often with the unlikely and the foolish, yet there is something to admire in the nerve of its reckless characters, so uneasy in their skins.
60
Empire
Damon Wise
An intriguing rites-of-passage story with a delirious, skewed perspective and an almost palpable sexual pulse.
50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Not a movie to cozy up to. The twisted tale is only mildly intriguing, worth seeing mainly for the striking performance of Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as Hallam Foe, a creepy teenage voyeur beset with an Oedipal complex.
50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
The film disappoints particularly in relation to "Young Adam," an earlier picture about sexual obsession from writer-director David Mackenzie; this one's more in line with the creamy tones and surface readings of "Asylum."
20
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Jamie Bell gives a watchable performance in this self-conscious, coming-of-age drama, though the film's overall effect is best described as David Lynch lite.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|
