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Sweetie (1989)

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0

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72

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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 1,365

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Movie Info

New Zealand-born filmmaker Jane Campion directs the darkly humorous family drama Sweetie. Thin and mousy Kay (Karen Colson) works in a factory and lives a dreary existence with her well-meaning boyfriend, Louis (Tom Lycos). One day, her sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon) arrives with her so-called manager, Bob (Michael Lake). Nicknamed Sweetie, Dawn is everything Kay is not: boisterous, impulsive, and overweight. Kay is consumed with uptight phobias, while Dawn hangs on to her unrealistic childhood

R, 1 hr. 37 min.

Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

Oct 24, 2006

Avenue Pictures Productions

Cast

All Critics (21) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (1) | DVD (9)

It's hard to sum up Sweetie, which happens to be one of the movie's strengths.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jane Camion's stunning feature debut is a bold and audacious dark comedy about sexual politics and dysfunctional family relations.

December 27, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

...a highly visual domestic horror film, a sui generis experience

May 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Comment
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Natural forces war with repressed emotions in Jane Campion's Sweetie, where the wind in the trees signifies the obscured memories and potential salvation of a family mired in stagnation.

April 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

[Jane Campion's] first full-fledged, no-doubt-about-it, stone-cold masterpiece.

August 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

a helter skelter ride through the offbeat life of a suburban Australian family whose youngest daughter is 'abnormal'

December 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

The director manages to sustain the film's quirky emotional tone, much more important than sustaining a plot.

October 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

A strong early effort from Jane Campion.

December 30, 2002 Comment
Flipside Movie Emporium
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Sweetie

Jane Campion's style is never going to woo the masses with broad appeal, but that's part of what makes her such a dynamic film maker. Sweetie is an odd bit of cinema that is both sentimental and detached. A quirky and imaginative motion picture.

June 12, 2009
flixsterman
Randy Tippy

Super Reviewer

A difficult and somewhat disturbing film that explores the troubled relationship between two very different sisters. Dawn (Genevieve Lemon), known to her family as Sweetie, is a blowzy, overweight woman with serious mental health issues and delusions of grandeur who shows up at her sister's with a producer/boyfriend in

August 7, 2010
Mark Abell

Super Reviewer

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