Strangers with Candy (2005)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 51 | Rotten: 47
Occasionally funny, but little more than a jumbled, overextended episode of the TV show. Still, Candy devotees won't be disappointed.
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 19
Occasionally funny, but little more than a jumbled, overextended episode of the TV show. Still, Candy devotees won't be disappointed.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 65,778
My Rating
Movie Info
The cult-favorite television series which offered a fun-house version of '70s "after-school specials" returns in this big-screen prequel to the show Strangers With Candy. Middle-aged ex-prostitute, former drug addict and all-around lowlife Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris) emerges from prison at the age of 46 ready to start her life over again. Jerri arrives at her parents' home to discover that her father Guy (Dan Hedaya) divorced Jerri's mom and remarried before slipping into a coma. Jerri's stepmom
Cast
-
Amy Sedaris
Jerri Blank -
Deborah Rush
Sara Blank -
Carlo Alban
Megawatti Sacarnaputri -
Maria Thayer
Tammi Littlenut -
Paul Dinello
Geoffrey Jellineck -
Stephen Colbert
Chuck Noblet -
Chris Pratt
Brason -
Elisabeth Harnois
Monica -
Joseph Cross
Derrick Blank -
Greg Hollimon
Principal Blackman -
Dan Hedaya
Guy Blank -
Matthew Broderick
Roger Beekman -
David Pasquesi
Stew -
Alexis Dziena
Melissa -
Ian Holm
Dr. Putney -
Sarah Jessica Parker
Peggy Callas -
Allison Janney
Alice -
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Henry -
Lian Moy
Lian -
Jeremy Chu
Jeremy -
Olivia Oguma
Olivia -
Hechter Ubarry
Nico -
Delores Duffy
Iris Puffybush -
Michael Rivera
Maniaco -
Evelyn McGee
Claire Noblet -
Jonah Bobo
Shamus Noblet -
Timothy Hsu
Mascot -
Chris Larkin
Kim -
Wallace Little
Trake -
Chandra Wilson
Reba -
Kristy Thomas
Wanda -
Tom Guiry
P John -
Calvin Robertson
Les Tuckles -
Kristen Johnston
Coach Divers -
Justin Theroux
Carlo Honklin
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All Critics (99) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (48) | DVD (13)
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.
Top CriticThis plays like a 'Season One' DVD, silly moments interspersed with lots of dull plot and lame high-school send-up situations.
I laughed my gluteus maximus off while watching.
Audiences should find the film brilliant or repellent. At the most interesting moments, it's a bit of both.
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.
Everyone but the terminally tight should find themselves laughing. And all should be awestruck by star Amy Sedaris.
Jerri may be a freshman here, but Sedaris, grotesque and fearless, is already lowbrow homecoming queen
The movie never makes good on its promise of unbridled humor, but nonetheless connects with enough stabs of parody to keep it mildly entertaining.
A bizarre mixture of streetwise raunch and starry-eyed ingenuousness.
THINKFilm's DVD is only adequate in its presentation, but the film deserves a look ... for the dark world that it so humorously encapsulates.
What separates Strangers with Candy from other high school comedies, or from most mainstream comedies in general, is the cast's total dedication to their parts.
There's nothing sweet about this very strange character, Jerri, but you still can't wait to see what outrageous thing she'll do next.
After a bracingly funny beginning, the film gets bogged down in silly plot permutations and repetitive humor, which was more effective in half-hour television doses.
[R]eplicate[s] in a raunchy cartoon how the chaos of our experience correlates more than we may care to admit to the chaos of our personalities.
In spite of its demented flavor, the movie surprisingly doesn't push the envelope the way the series did.
No matter how long the film runs, it's still a funny addition to the Strangers With Candy universe.
It roars along with reckless abandon, skewering everything in its path.
... for the most part is not particularly funny.
Amy Sedaris suits up as everyone's favorite former-prostitute/drug addict-turned-high school student in the long-awaited--and quite funny--big-screen version of the cult TV series.
Clever and undeniably peculiar, Strangers with Candy suffers from both a complete lack of focus and a terminal case of self-satisfaction.
Connoisseurs of the show likely relish the induced awkwardness and off-kilter rhythms of the piece; a good part of its appeal was the blank and baffled looks it induced in the uninitiated.
A raunchy, subversive little satire about unlikely redemption.
Walks a fine line of comedic self-awareness, and only on occasion loses us in a haze of condescending wit.
Colbert steals scenes as Chuck Noblet . . . The cracked, sordid style of Strangers with Candy half-bewilders and half-appalls you into laughing.
Audience Reviews for Strangers with Candy
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Foreign Titles
- Stranger (Ono) (DE)
- Stranger (Ono) (UK)
