48
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxThe overall effect of watching his film is a bit like a nerve-racking game of Russian roulette: You just know a gun is going to go off, but you don't know which of this multitude of characters it's going to hit.
- 75New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardWhile this is not exactly a hopeful movie, it's a polished exercise in the kind of social commentary that can wake people up.
- 50Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonAll of the stories are conceived as ongoing plights, and have no third act. Which would be an improvement on Haggis's hyperbolic civics lesson if Avelino had the chops to master realism and embrace ambivalence. The acting is pro enough to keep your blood up, but the reverb is minimal.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenIf American Gun avoids the most obvious kinds of sensationalism, it has the flaw common to many editorial broadsides of overstuffing its episodes with melodrama and symbolism.
- 42The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe Sutherland segments are the most bothersome, because they never really reach a resolution, and because they're betrayed by Avelino's uni-faceted approach.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenA painfully earnest but dramatically inert film.
- 40VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonLacks focus and momentum as it attempts to interweave diverse story strands into a cautionary tapestry.
- 40Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustLos Angeles TimesKevin CrustThe film is haphazardly structured, undercutting its potential power.
- 38New York PostNew York PostIt turns out the stories don't unite at all. Instead, we get a series of dramatic vignettes, most of them decently executed but all of them rooted in the weepy sensibility of TV movies.
- 30L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasThis is "Crash" with gun violence substituted for racism, although the tone of director–co-writer Aric Avelino's debut feature may be closer to one of those pious public-safety films that used to be shown to schoolchildren in order to frighten them out of potential bad behavior.