What Goes Up 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: The film really struggles to find its voice and to find purpose and meaning. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: About as cruddy as a cruddy little indie can get, especially given a cast that should've known better. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: While it's often as amateurish as it is assured, Glatzer and writer Robert Lawson want to convey so much that the sheer breadth of the movie means they hit a few of their targets. Read more

Boston Globe: Read more

Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times: [Director] Glatzer aims to wring laughter out of this desperation but succeeds only in producing a series of contrived characters and situations that make The Breakfast Club look like an unfiltered documentary. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The whole thing feels like a premeditated attempt at a Sundance sensation, a mix of cast members (and ideas) from Juno and Hamlet 2 spiced up with the now obligatory '80s references. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: An unusually subdued Coogan does his best, but this is the kind of pretentious nonsense he usually satirizes. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Without a trace of tempo or one shred of narrative pacing, What Goes Up is not really a movie; it's the cheapest kind of amateurishness that looks like it was shot with a cell phone. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Director and co-writer Jonathan Glatzer handles his talented cast well, and the movie is dark, droll and sentimental in roughly the correct proportions. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Given its title and direct linkage to the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster -- nearly adds tasteless to its unflattering hat trick. Read more

Vadim Rizov, Village Voice: I've seen a lot of terrible movies in the line of duty, but What Goes Up might be the only genuinely unreleasable one. Read more