Bright Young Things Reviews

A film that not only Anglophiles will enjoy, it is a work that charms us with its portrayal of a lost time, place and generation.

| Original Score: 3/4

Though Fry's movie has plenty of nasty wit, it lacks the sheer luxurious malice of Waugh's book. Fry is acerbic; Waugh is lethal.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

I would have liked "Bright Young Things" more if I had liked the characters less.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Inspires equal amounts of guilty envy and haughty revulsion for its hard-partying crowd.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

It's fluff, but if entertainment value is all you're looking for, you could do worse

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The episodic structure gets more unwieldy as the story progresses -- the pitfall of condensing a sprawling novel, perhaps -- but there's still room for some rewarding dalliances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

This satirical period piece settles for being mildly diverting and only sporadically amusing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

As the characters dance frantically near the abyss, it's hard to care when some of them fall in. *

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Bright Young Things lacks free-spiritedness and bite.

Nothing registers through the smothering cheesecloth of the dull staging and inconsequential kookiness...

| Original Score: 1.5/4

Suffers from feeling like it's just pretending to be good when it's obviously much, much happier being bad. But when it's bad, it's very, very good.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Its chief strength is the obvious deep-seated affection Fry has for each sedated, hung-over soul.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

If you yearn for a Brit fix, this is your flick. If not, think twice before checking it out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Since no one is playing a rounded character -- just pawns in Waugh's linguistic 'exercise' -- the performances are necessarily mere snapshots haphazardly crammed into a chaotic album.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

For those who mourned the final episodes of Brideshead and other installments of the queen's English, Bright Young Things is a diverting evening in the British Isles.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Fry establishes himself as an inspired, world-class talent behind the camera and delivers my favorite film of the year thus far.

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There are some small gems of performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

In trying so hard not to take itself too seriously, Bright Young Things succeeds in being a lot of ado over nothing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

A very funny movie about people who are very sad and don't know it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Sizzles with Jazz Age energy, sparkles with champagne wit and roars along like a Grand Prix race car.

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