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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
58
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64
Appaloosa
69
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68
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54
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75
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70
Black Balloon, The
xx
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
51
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xx
Cargo 200
44
Chandni Chowk to China
63
Changeling
64
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56
Cherry Blossoms
84
Christmas Tale, A
94
Class, The
38
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58
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43
Donkey Punch
xx
Dostana
62
Duchess, The
46
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63
Eden
xx
Extreme Movie
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
26
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80
Frost/Nixon
43
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73
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54
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30
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84
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50
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70
Hunger
72
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79
I've Loved You So Long
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JCVD
65
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57
Last Chance Harvey
82
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31
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xx
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17
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36
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Nobel Son
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Tell No One
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Theater of War
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U2 3D
90
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Wrestler, The
48
Yonkers Joe
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Class, The
90
Waltz with Bashir
89
Man on Wire
86
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Secret of the Grain, The
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Let the Right One In
82
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
81
Wrestler, The
81
Wendy and Lucy
80
Frost/Nixon
79
Of Time and the City
79
I've Loved You So Long
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
75
Pool, The
75
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Silent Light
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
What Doesn't Kill You
70
Black Balloon, The
70
Moscow, Belgium
70
Hunger
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Timecrimes
68
Theater of War
67
Synecdoche, New York
65
Just Another Love Story
65
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
64
Che
64
JCVD
64
Nothing But the Truth
64
Appaloosa
63
Changeling
63
Eden
62
Duchess, The
61
Where God Left His Shoes
59
We Are Wizards
58
Adam Resurrected
58
Reader, The
58
Defiance
57
Special
57
Last Chance Harvey
56
Cherry Blossoms
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Breakfast with Scot
50
How About You
48
Yonkers Joe
46
Dukes, The
44
Chandni Chowk to China
43
Tru Loved
43
Donkey Punch
43
Gardens of the Night
43
Not Easily Broken
40
While She Was Out
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
40
Good
38
Dark Streets
36
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
31
Let Them Chirp Awhile
30
Guitar, The
29
Lake City
28
Nobel Son
28
Fireproof
26
Filth and Wisdom
21
House of the Sleeping Beauties
17
Lodger, The
xx
Dostana
xx
Medicine for Melancholy
xx
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
xx
Cargo 200
xx
Local Color
xx
Shadows
xx
Luck by Chance
xx
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Wendy and Lucy
Oscilloscope Pictures
MPAA RATING: R for language
Starring
Michelle Williams,
Will Patton,
Larry Fessenden,
Will Oldham,
Walter Dalton,
and
John Robinson
Wendy Carroll is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and Lucy. Wendy and Lucy addresses issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of people's duty to each other in tough times. (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
WRITTEN BY: |
Jon Raymond
Kelly Reichardt
|
DIRECTED BY: |
Kelly Reichardt
|
RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: December 10, 2008
|
RUNNING TIME: |
80 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...
100
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Improbably, it's one of the most affecting films of the year, which once again demonstrates that all you need to make a good movie is talent.
100
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Wendy and Lucy is modest, minimalist. But it nonetheless reverberates like a sonic boom.
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It's a tender, tough, uncompromising film, photographed with a disarming directness and seeming simplicity that looks almost naked next to the dramatic constructions of most films. It just makes her precariousness all the more real.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Wendy and Lucy is like "Lassie Come Home" directed by Antonioni. What's piercing about it, and also disturbing, is that Reichardt views the renunciation of society with something close to righteous purity -- as a lefty romantic dream.
91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Having the dog around raises the emotional stakes tenfold, and develops a kinship with Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic "Umberto D.," which also revealed societal ills through a poignant dog-owner relationship
91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The film is exquisitely realized, with a tremendous, naturalistic performance by Michelle Williams at its heart and a pervasive, assuring sense that Reichardt and Raymond have distilled everything nonessential from their story and imparted exactly the impact they wished.
90
Los Angeles Times
Sam Adams
Williams' performance is remarkable not only for its depth but for its stillness.
90
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
What will happen to her? The strength of this short, simple, perfect story of a young woman and her dog is that this does not seem, by the end, to be an idle or trivial question. What happens to Wendy -- and to Lucy -- matters a lot, which is to say that Wendy and Lucy, for all its modesty, matters a lot too.
90
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Trembling throughout on the verge of a tearful breakdown, but far too dignified to allow her character to choke up, Williams delivers a sensationally nuanced performance that, were it not so resolutely undramatic, would constitute an aria of stoical misery.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Simple story, beautifully told.
88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
An evocative film with a believable and subtly enthralling lead performance that gets deeply under your skin.
88
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Wendy Carroll is a character we rarely see in movies anymore, a woman left alone with her thoughts. That a moviegoer would care what she's thinking testifies to the power in Williams's brand of solitude.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
In a minimalist film of muted emotions, Michelle Williams gives as lovely a performance as a moviegoer could ask for.
80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Reichardt is a tremendously conscientious filmmaker, and not out to torture the audience. Yes, this is a fraught and agonizing story, but the way it ends, although heartbreaking, is absolutely right.
80
Variety
Scott Foundas
"Old Joy" helmer Kelly Reichardt plays to her strengths in Wendy and Lucy, a modest yet deeply felt road movie about an idealistic young drifter, her faithful canine and the wide-open spaces of the Pacific Northwest.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Reichardt doesn't so much tell a story as paint a finely detailed portrait of human suffering in this miniature marvel.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The transformation undergone by Michelle Williams to play this role is nothing short of astounding.
75
TV Guide
Josh Ralske
Reichardt is such a canny filmmaker that one could almost believe that she intentionally leaves Wendy underwritten and a bit of a cipher, because Wendy is far more effective as a bold-faced symbol of the downtrodden than as a fully realized human character.
70
The New Yorker
David Denby
She's infuriating, but the movie, for all its morose impassivity, is beautiful and haunting.
70
Film Threat
Don R. Lewis
Unless you're an antsy movie-goer or have a cold heart, by the end of Wendy and Lucy, you'll be engrossed, hoping for the best possible outcome.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Staff (Not credited)
Michelle Williams does her best but she cannot prevent Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, a weak tale about being broke and on the road in rural America, from dwindling into boredom.
20
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Like a worst-case-scenario, indie-movie cliché, Wendy and Lucy throws every bone it can at the screen.
The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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