Family Weekend 2013

Andy Webster, New York Times: The script, by Matt K. Turner, is loaded with contradictions, its hollow flirtation with subversion amount to airplane pablum. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The kind of dark-for-dark's sake, wannabe quirkfest that proves indie films can be just as cliched and vapid as the most soulless Hollywood movies. Read more

Eddie Cockrell, Variety: The direction by Benjamin Epps, who has an early cameo as a jump-rope judge, shows decent comic timing, but needs to dial the histrionics way down and find a script that has some substance beneath the shenanigans. Read more

David Martindale, Dallas Morning News: Don't let the innocuous title fool you. Family Weekend is a subversive little comedy in which a tightly wound misfit of a teenage girl, fed up with watching her family spiral out of control, subjects her parents to an extreme intervention. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The unconventional dysfunctional family has now become a Hollywood convention. It is familiar to a fault. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: What keeps the film afloat is the buoyant young cast, with Rulin especially watchable as the tightly wound lead and Joey King as her younger sister, who's an aspiring actress. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: We're sitting there, trapped. An angry little teenager's yelling at us. And we're not having any fun at all. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There's no overcoming the poorly conceived premise of Benjamin Epps' debut comedy. But a strong start and solid cast take it further than one might expect. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: For a long while, director Benjamin Epps goes for breakneck farce; at its best, this is a batty mixture of family-values editorial and teen spoof. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: Quirky indie hell, thy name is Family Weekend. Read more