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Avg. Critic Score: 63 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    An emotionally charged coming-of-age saga that will make you laugh and cry, maybe at the same time. Read full review

  • 75
    New York Daily News | Jami Bernard

    Fresh and unexpected. It feels like a real window on the lives of disenfranchised youths - these are in South Atlanta - as they make their way in a society that doesn't cut them any breaks. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    What I liked most was its unforced, genuine affection for its characters. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Teresa Wiltz

    Notwithstanding the melodrama and the often ham-handed directing, ATL somehow works. A large part of this is thanks to Robinson's skill in evoking the hickory-smoked flavor of the ATL. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    The more rink time, the better: As directed by hip-hop music-video king Chris Robinson from a story by "Antwone Fisher's" Antwone Fisher, the skate scenes are a blast. Read full review

  • 63
    Boston Globe |

    Is ATL even a hip-hop movie? There's hip-hop in it, certainly, but unlike the recent vehicles for Eminem and 50 Cent -- respectively, ''8 Mile" and ''Get Rich or Die Tryin' " -- it does not have a rapper hero. Read full review

  • 63
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Carrie Rickey

    Working from a story by Antwone Fisher, screenwriter Tina Gordon Chism is tender toward characters balancing where they come from with where they'd like to go. Fisher was the subject of an inspirational biography by Denzel Washington. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Several good ideas for a movie rumble around inside ATL, but they never coalesce. Read full review

  • 60
    Variety | Justin Chang

    Higher on stylistic dazzle than originality or coherence. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times |

    The fun here is in seeing a new batch of rappers try acting, and some of them turn out to be eminently watchable. Read full review

View more reviews for ATL on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Morally grounded kids in the hood come of age.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie includes frequent allusions to sexuality and young people testing limits of authority. A 14-year-old character skips school and sells drugs: subsequently, he's suspended from school, chastised by his brother and uncle, beated by a group of older guys, and shot by his drug dealer employer (shooting takes place off screen and boy does not die). Girls wear revealing clothes, their bottoms featured in several "booty" shots. We hear that two boys lost their parents in a car accident.
  • Families can talk about Rashad's fears of commitment and abandonment, owing to the loss of his parents. How does his relationship with his younger brother eventually teach the value of taking responsibility and being honest?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Living in a poor neighborhood, orphaned 17-year-old looks after his little brother, bonds (and briefly fights) with his friends through roller skating, pursues his ambition to draw comics; the primary villain (a drug dealer) intimidates the community and eventually shoots one of his workers.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Menacing gangster appears throughout; brief discussion of parents killed in car crash; brief violence erupts near the end: a boy is beaten by thugs who steal his money and drugs he's supposed to sell; a dealer shoots a boy for vengeance (shooting offscreen, but the result -- his family worrying in the hospital -- makes clear he's injured).
  • sex false3 Sex: Kids make out in background shots at school; a romantic, nonexplicit sex scene (not explicit, facial close-ups, tenderness); frequent images of girls' bottoms, tight clothing, bikinis, and cleavage; sexual slang.
  • language false3 Language: One f-word, over ten s-words, one b-word, frequent use of "ass" and "damn," slang for sexual activity and genitalia ("titty,"booty," "cuddy"), at least two uses of the n-word; some hip-hop songs on soundtrack also include brief language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Golden Crisp cereal.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: High schoolers drink at parties; villain smokes cigars; brief cigarette smoking in background; a couple of characters sell drugs (and one adult considers this might be a good income for the household, before his nephew argues against it);
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Looking for more reviews? Movies.com Critics Say:

Dave White

3.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

… like a hip-hop American Graffiti … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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