Critic Reviews

• John Hartl, Seattle Times

  While the movie itself is an uneven, sometimes preachy affair, it's alive with possibilities whenever [Weston's] on screen.

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  Initially, this low-budget film writes a lot of checks on the First National Bank of Whimsy, but I was astonished when none of them bounced.

• Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

  A likably goofy, lo-fi indie propelled by the syncopations of a cheesy keyboard - and the cheesy dreams of its hapless heroes.

• Andy Webster, New York Times

  Inner child? Open road? No, this film is actually about Mr. O'Nan and his wan, scruffy innocence.

• Nick Schager, Village Voice

  An indie about-tell me if this sounds familiar-a brokenhearted sad sack who travels cross-country with a weirdo and a too-hot-for-these-dorks woman on a road trip of healing and self-actualization.

• R. Emmet Sweeney, Time Out New York

  Offering little more than flat karaoke versions of Sundance-style hits, this is strictly an amateur-hour affair.

• Brent Simon, Shared Darkness

  An offbeat, hipster-inflected road movie that steadfastly refuses to conform to expectation and sense. A to-scale victory of quirky charm and feeling over sagacity.

• Prairie Miller, WBAI Radio

  O'Nan deciphers in comical yet solemn ways, young characters representing warring sides of himself. While doing battle with joblessness, alienation, working stiff drudgery, and existential redemption through art and the imagination.

• Marc Mohan, Oregonian

  This ode to indie legitimacy proves to be too cartoonish to feel real and not outrageous enough to be memorable ...

• Diego Costa, Slant Magazine

  Do we really need another film about underachieving white men with scruffy beards? Ryan O'Nan thinks so.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  It's just a shame about the script, which follows such a prescribed track of Alexander Payne-ish road-trippery that nothing really rings true.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  It gets nowhere slowly.

• Allan Hunter, Daily Express

  It may have some flaws but The Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best is still the kind of underdog movie you want to clasp to your heart. It is an unexpected charmer.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  The comedy is at odds, perhaps even at war, with the gravitational downward pull of bittersweet seriousness, and the sucrose content is pretty high by the end. But it's an entertaining film.

• David Jenkins, Little White Lies

  O' Nan needs to retool and get some new material.

• David Hughes, Empire Magazine

  Good fun, but O'Nan doesn't take this film nearly as far as it could go, leaving the plot and its characters somewhat two-dimensional in their obvious stereotyping.

• Neil Smith, Total Film

  [A] highly likeable buddy movie.

Read all 17 critic reviews