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Pretty Persuasion

5.7

1,450

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Original title

Pretty Persuasion

Year

2005

Running time

104 min.

Country

United States

Director

Marcos Siega

Screenwriter

Skander Halim

Cast

Music

Gilad Benamram

Cinematography

Ramsey Nickell

Producer

Prospect Pictures, REN-Mar Studios. Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Genre

Drama. Comedy | Independent Film (US). Schools & University

Synopsis

In this sophisticated comedy, Evan Rachel Wood plays Kimberly Joyce, an intelligent, funny, precocious, and shockingly cruel Beverly Hills teenager who will stop at nothing to become famous. Believing the world is an orchestra and she is the conductor, Kimberly masterfully manipulates all those around her, including her befuddled teacher, Mr. Anderson (Ron Livingston), her father (James Woods), her friends, and even a local TV reporter (Jane Krakowski), until soon Kimberly has trapped her entire community in a carefully woven web of seduction and deceit.

Awards: 2005: Sundance Film Festival: Nominated for Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic

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Critics' reviews

"[It] exists uneasily somewhere between comedy and satire (...) Like 'Lolita,' this is a movie about young girls but not for them (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"An obscene, misanthropic go-for-broke satire, 'Pretty Persuasion' is so gleefully nasty that the fact that it was even made and released is astonishing"

Stephen Holden: The New York Times
"Rachel Wood holds the film’s scattershot focus together through the strength of her icy, deceitful charm"

Nick Schager: Slant
"Where Pretty Persuasion fails as a comedy, it succeeds as a black little mood piece, thanks largely to the almost scary conviction and sociopathic calm Wood brings to her character"

Nathan Rabin: AV Club
"It's too bad that the satire is not more pointed, because Pretty Persuasion is outrageously funny in short blasts, mainly thanks to James Woods at his most gleefully depraved"

Carina Chocano: Los Angeles Times
"An exercise in bad taste that takes itself just seriously enough to be offensive"

Dennis Harvey: Variety
"A teenie To Die For whose flaws are superceded by a complex, compelling turn from Evan Rachel Wood (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

Dan Jolin: Empire

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User history

Pretty Persuasion

2005

Marcos Siega

5.7

(1,450)