Critic Reviews

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  The movie is both amusing and disturbing as it explores Emerson's lurching efforts to bond with his teacher.

• Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

  These knots are all tied by the end, but not memorably so.

• Albert Williams, Chicago Reader

  This wry, tender 2005 Canadian comedy puts a fresh spin on the theme of adolescent sexual awakening.

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  A gentle, perceptive Canadian film.

• Rafer Guzman, Newsday

  ... promises slightly more than it delivers but still comes together nicely.

• Tom Beer, Time Out New York

  ... well-intentioned but underwhelming ...

• Don Willmott, Filmcritic.com

  a small-scale film with big emotional payoffs.

• Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  Toronto-based filmmaker Amnon Buchbinder tackles the sensitive subject of adolescent sexuality in this winning coming-of-age character study set in a wintry small town in Nova Scotia.

• Shlomo Schwartzberg, Boxoffice Magazine

  Buchbinder displays an original filmic eye, but mostly Whole New Thing is a few drafts short of an emotionally fulfillilng feature.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  But what's salutary about this effort is the canny intelligence and emotional understanding director Amnon Buchbinder has brought to the mostly well-wrought screenplay he wrote with MacIvor.

• Phil Hall, Film Threat

  The dialogue has a sour, sitcom ring that grows tiresome and irritating before the second reel.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  With its narcissistic, not-as- sharp-as- he-thinks- he-is juvenile hero and weird approach to bridging the generation gap, Whole New Thing plays a lot like Wes Anderson's Rushmore, only sober instead of whimsical.

• Pam Grady, Reel.com

  The cast is uniformly excellent, but Webber in his first feature role is a stand out, delivering a subtle performance that offers a fully realized portrayal of a smart, sensitive, confused, and sometimes bratty and obnoxious youth.

• Brian Orndorf, eFilmCritic.com

  Buchbinder's direction creates a tremendous sense of location and adolescent awkwardness that blossoms beautifully during the picture.

• Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics

  [The film] shows respect for open communications and differing life styles and lets the audience in on diverse feelings and ways of acting them out.

• Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  Evinces an Ed Zwickian dramatic tenor that would probably scan better on ABC.

Read all 16 critic reviews