Strangers with Candy 2006

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: Easily the wittiest, most ridiculous and best-written comedy of the year. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Smirky, gum-in-your-hair humor dominates this dreadful 2005 feature. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: Maybe a half-hour dose was just right, because the film's pacing is torpid and many of the jokes fall flat. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It all works because of the whip-smart dialogue and the great performances. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Whether you guffaw, giggle or sit stone-faced through Strangers With Candy will depend on your reaction to Sedaris as Jerri and her freak show of over-the-top bad taste. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Strangers With Candy was an atypical sitcom, but like so many television adaptations, its big-screen spin-off is just like the television show, only not as good. Read more

Kathy Cano Murillo, Arizona Republic: Thanks to the comic genius of Sedaris, Strangers With Candy is a good thing -- as long as your taste buds can handle the politically incorrect aftertaste. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The show's brilliant conceit seems mild. In its own way, this is just another teen movie. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: A film that never quite manages to justify its existence. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Some things were meant to be seen in small doses or on small screens. For all its subversive perks and quirks, Strangers is one of them. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: This camp farce has its moments of high hilarity, and Sedaris is a spark plug, but it's wildly uneven. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Everyone but the terminally tight should find themselves laughing. And all should be awestruck by star Amy Sedaris. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: If you loved Amy Sedaris before in a golfer-lady wig and inbred chump's grin, you'll maybe love her again here, while wishing she had another TV-episode-size venue for her talents. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Not surprisingly, the film version contains about 30 minutes of hilarity, and they're stretched out at least as far as Jerri's ill-fitting slacks. Read more

Manuel Mendoza, Dallas Morning News: It's carefully constructed to set up and deliver laugh after laugh. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: It's worth catching the film just for Sedaris' performance. Surrounded and sparked by all the show's familiar characters (most played by the wonderful TV cast), she's a marvel of inspired grotesqueness. Read more

Stephen Williams, Newsday: Quickly, no taste leads to bad taste, and dumb leads to dumber. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A subversive confection, Strangers with Candy sends up after-school specials, cheerfully debasing the genre. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The jokes are so sketchy and silly it quickly passes the point of wretched excess. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This plays like a 'Season One' DVD, silly moments interspersed with lots of dull plot and lame high-school send-up situations. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's so brilliant in places that it can make a viewer root for it, but that's not exactly the same as enjoying it, not really. Read more

Darel Jevens, Chicago Sun-Times: The gags are many, and more often than not they work. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Audiences should find the film brilliant or repellent. At the most interesting moments, it's a bit of both. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: I laughed my gluteus maximus off while watching. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The offbeat film starts off hilariously. But as the very thin plot, centering on a science fair, unfolds, and celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Allison Janney and Philip Seymour Hoffman arrive, everything becomes less funny. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Inspired jokes run neck-and-neck with flat ones. Still, the faux 'instructive' tone (full of ostensible life lessons that couldn't be more amoral) and rack of offbeat characterizations keeps things diverting. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Strangers With Candy regularly lampoons junkie-reparation melodramas and after-school specials, but with so little focus it's never clear what the film, or even Sedaris's vaudeville buffoon incarnation, is supposed to be parodying. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Occasionally takes a step in the direction of the after-school specials it's trying to twit; you'll catch it trying to make you feel warm and fuzzy about Jerri. Read more