45
Metascore
38 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawNicole Kidman gives her best performance since "To Die For."
- 80The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyIn the spirit of the venture, the entire cast gets down and comes off all the better for it. Both Efron and McConaughey get very messed up physically, and both actors seem stimulated to be playing such flawed characters.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceWhen not contriving to get Efron out of his clothes, The Paperboy gropes for familiar movie language of its period setting: Soul music swells up excitedly over a jumble of jerky zooms, befuddling cuts, and spatial vagueness. But sometimes hot messiness has its charms.
- 70Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonBoxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonThis is a curio that demands to be seen.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMuch of what happens in The Paperboy is so luridly bizarre you can't quite believe what you're seeing.
- 50Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe Paperboy deserves to be seen for its pulpy, well-executed excess, but as a filmmaker, Lee Daniels seems ignorant of how the shocks distract from the story.
- 40Time OutEric HynesTime OutEric HynesThe problem is that the filmmaker brings D-grade craft to these B-movie exertions, making his florid maximalism more entertaining to talk about than endure - despite the best efforts of his ardently slumming A-list cast.
- 0The PlaylistJames RocchiThe PlaylistJames RocchiA lurid, florid, humid, flaccid and insipid waste of time and money for the audience and for everyone who made it.