The nuanced performances, well-used locations and sensitive script set it far above the typical Hollywood teen flick.
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09/17/04
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Mean Creek (2004)
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:104
Rotten:11
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Mean Creek is an uncomfortably riveting glimpse into the casual cruelty of youth.
Theatrical Release:Aug 20, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $295,919
Synopsis: Director Jacob Estes's feature film debut is a remarkably accomplished coming of age drama about death and consequences. When overweight, emotionally troubled George (Josh Peck) beats up a smaller... [More]
Starring: Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan
Director: Jacob Estes
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Reviews for Mean Creek
Estes has accomplished quite a bit here. In addition to providing a textbook example of suspense, he also makes us want to know what happens to these kids after the screen goes dark.
09/17/04
You could call Mean Creek a moral thriller. And the emotional currents the movie wades into are far more tricky than the gentle surface the kids' boat floats along.
09/17/04
A remarkable feat...the audience not only becomes part of the film, but becomes young again.
09/17/04
Not quite convincing, but Estes deserves credit for asking us to sympathize with the type of obnoxious bully most movies offer up as a deserving target of 'payback.'
09/17/04
While other teen films cling to the sappy and saccharine, first-time writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes' movie has a taut, haunting story that is actually relevant.
09/17/04
I never lived a story anything like this, but I understand the emotional life of this film -- and I'm betting you will, too.
09/17/04
Top CriticMean Creek functions well as both a tidy little thriller and a touching coming-of-age story, and that's more than teens usually get these days.
09/17/04
A beautifully filmed and frequently stirring drama.
09/16/04
It is in the examination of kid psychology that this film shines, and in the convincing portrayals by these young actors.
09/11/04
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09/11/04
In its simple portrait of a bully Mean Creek may be one of the most political and socially conscious films of the year.
09/10/04
As odd as it may sound, the best of the many good things that can be said of writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes' debut feature Mean Creek is that it could have been written by a teenager.
09/10/04
Top CriticWorth seeing... but it breaks your heart to watch such a complicated, perceptive movie drift into hand-wringing Afterschool Special territory.
09/08/04
Though I may have had difficulties with some technical aspects of the film, I was left with a sense of promise for just about all who participated.
09/08/04
There are all sorts of other themes at work below the surface, including examinations of teenage peer pressure and moral responsibility.
09/04/04
Estes dives into this material as if it's never been done before, and his characters and situations are so realistic and the film's tone is so assured that he succeeds at making it feel fresh.
09/03/04
Top CriticAn unusually truthful depiction of the way kids today talk, think and act.
09/03/04
Very much its own picture -- and a damn sight better one than Stand by Me.
09/03/04
A rare film that cares to explore what's going on in the bully's head.
09/02/04
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