Critic Reviews

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  The resulting film has the integrity and the ugliness of the truth. It's not true because it's ugly; no, it's ugly because it's true.

• Sara Stewart, New York Post

  There's no colorful Boschian absurdism here, only soulless banter and projectile vomit.

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  One of those exercises in masculine self-pity and glib misogyny that frustrates because of its shortsightedness.

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  Yes, it feels true. But why bother?

• Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

  This slovenly, self-indulgent riff on Charles Bukowski-like fringe-livers has all of the naked harshness of Bukowski with none of the poetry.

• Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

  An appreciation that the pain is personal doesn't compensate for the picture's self-absorbed need to alienate.

• Kam Williams, myfilmblog

  Hedonistic playboy tries Platonic relationship in offbeat romantic romp.

• Kelly Vance, East Bay Express

  A rare example of the "decadent LA" movie, once thought extinct.

• Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

  A hard sell unless you've got an appetite for self-destruction. Haas makes Crazy Eyes surprisingly digestible.

• Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue.com

  Just because the main characters are in a constant state of depression and angst doesn't mean the audience should have to wallow in their misery as well.

• Alison Willmore, Movieline

  The film seems to aim for a gritty and real depiction of a drug- and drink-fueled not-quite romance, but it's in fact just your worst fears about the kinds of people who populate L.A. brought to ugly, misogynistic and sometimes maudlin life.

• Shirley Sealy, Film Journal International

  The only audience likely to respond favorably to this vanity production about the slow, painful self-discovery of a rich, young Hollywood filmmaker would be other rich, young and screwed-up Hollywood filmmakers. But even they might be put off.

• Sam Adams, AV Club

  Sherman's feature turns out to be enamored of the kind of reality that gets left out of movies not because it's provocative or controversial, but because it isn't particularly interesting.

• Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine

  While the male characters are certainly not presented as models of enlightened behavior, their antics and crises are indulged in a manner not extended to their female counterparts.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

  [VIDEO ESSAY] Matching the cold, callused, cynicism of Bret Easton Ellis's LA Gen-X "Less Than Zero," "Crazy Eyes" is too much in love with its spoiled brat protagonist. It is still a guilty pleasure in the theater of cruelty.

• Kate Erbland, Film School Rejects

  Crazy Eyes feels a bit like a more light-hearted Leaving Las Vegas or a more energetic Somewhere -- comparisons that are meant as compliments.

Read all 16 critic reviews