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| A tough sit, but it attracts more than repels you. It commands your attention. Once it lands its hooks in you, there's no tearing away. |
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| (Eric Campos, Film Threat) |
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| A film that forges identification with its victimized heroine like none I've seen in decades. |
| (The Nova Scotia–born Page, a Molly Ringwald type who was only 15 when the movie was made, leaves little doubt as to whether a kid can play a grown-up's icky game and win.) |
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| (Rob Nelson, Village Voice) |
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| To pull this kind of thing off you need exceptional performances, and the two leads rise commandingly to the challenge. Wilson, best known for his work in the screen version of "The Phantom of the Opera" and HBO's "Angels in America," keeps his true colors effectively muted throughout the bulk of their face-off, but it is Page who astonishes. |
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| (Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter) |
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| Hard Candy is not perfect, but it is a provocative piece of filmmaking with a dark and daring heart that makes it worth seeing. |
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| (Winda Benedetti, Seattle Post-Intelligencer) |
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| A psychosexual thriller that treads a thin line between art and exploitation. The mere fact that it manages this queasy high-wire act is what sets debut director David Slade's slick mind game apart from the drooling pack. |
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| (Jami Bernard, New York Daily News) |
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| For music video director Slade embarking upon his first feature, this is edgy territory. The material is compelling - it has the power to simultaneously engross and repel. The film's cruelty will turn off some viewers, but that's the quality that will impassion Hard Candy's defenders. There's a lot more going on here than just a revenge fantasy. These are two fascinating characters, and watching them thrust and parry proves to be as impossible to turn away from as observing a grotesque roadside accident. |
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| (James Berardinelli, Reelviews) |
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| It's not always easy viewing, but Hard Candy is an intelligent, challenging film which deserves to be seen. |
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| (Caroline Westbrook, Empire) |
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