Stateside 2004

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: A diluted, scattered drama -- less than the sum of its parts, but with an impressive cameo list. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It felt authentic ... Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The lovers' nonexistent chemistry doesn't generate enough heat to light a match. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: The film manages to hit all the emotional beats, but most land with a resounding thud. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Though much of the movie feels as undeveloped as Mark is, it manages to end the way any decent love story must -- on a sweet, touching note that makes us want to forgive the unsteadiness along the way. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The way that all of this plays out is so unconvincing that I felt as if I was watching a lost Project Greenlight movie in which half the key scenes, after testing into the basement, had been chucked at the last minute. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Although based on a true story, it never establishes its own identity, often playing like warmed-over J.D. Salinger. Read more

John Patterson, L.A. Weekly: [Anselmo's] sure-footed handling of emotional tone enables his endearing young leads to function in a sympathetic and coherent realm. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: A genuinely affecting love story told without a trace of affect. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A ludicrous indie romance. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Plays like a movie of the week. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Mexican writer-director, Reverge Anselmo, is clueless about how to make any of it believable, cogent or even remotely interesting. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: This muddled drama begins as a high school soap opera, segues into a boys-to-men military drama and peters out as a feeble answer to Girl, Interrupted. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Stateside plays like urgent ideas for a movie which Anselmo needed to make, but they're still in note form. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Contrived and emotionally incomplete, and strained further by self-consciously cockeyed dialogue. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: Stateside's real-life frame allows the complexities of mental illness and military service to lose dramatic tension, resulting in a desultory home stretch. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Turns out to be not so much a movie about a Kwazy Person as it is about a Stoopid Person. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It's so unexpected and unpredictable and so full of tiny grace notes that its ultimate collapse seems almost irrelevant. Read more