Over the GW Reviews
An undeniably personal if amateurish psychodrama... Gaglia's torture re-creations become rote quickly, and his cross-processed, color-tinted, randomly inserted, over-zoomed Film School 101 indulgences need their meds adjusted.
An earnest but amateurish look at a cultlike rehab, Nick Gaglia's semiautobiographical debut feature means well. Then again, so did his parents when they condemned him and his sister to a sadistic substance-abuse program.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/6
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Overall, the performances are surprisingly convincing, but the mockumentary elements feel out of place and the intrusive switching between B&W and color denotes nothing; it's just a gratuitous flourish that detracts from the raw story material.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Los Angeles Times
Top CriticAt a mere 76 minutes, the movie skips past what seems like lots of crucial exposition in favor of vague flashbacks and confusing inserts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Slant Magazine
Over the GW is appropriately troubling in its evocation of humanity's penchant for self-destruction.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Over the G W follows a troubled brother and sister as they are committed to a New Jersey treatment center by their well-meaning parents.
| Original Score: 4/5
Both newcomers, the two leads impress, as does veteran actor Albert Insinnia as the center's psycho director.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Writer-director Nick Gaglia has fashioned a documentary-style drama that is too narratively disjointed to achieve maximum impact, but too emotionally potent in fits and starts to be dismissed out of hand.
