Jack and DianeMovie Reviews

So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 45 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

not for kids

Read Common Sense Media review

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

67

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
Love and sex are scary in Bradley Rust Gray's over-Freuded exercise in semi-horror/gender studies. Read full review
58

indieWIRE | Eric Kohn
The mystical allure of this long-awaited "lesbian werewolf movie" turns out to have more value than the real thing. Read full review
50

Slant Magazine |
Scenes of the pair staring longingly into each other's eyes go on for so long that they become devoid of meaning, not unlike the film's alchemical fusion of genres. Read full review
50

The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck
Imagine a teenage lesbian love story directed by David Cronenberg and you'll have some sense of the weirdness of Jack and Diane. Bradley Rust Gray's attempt to weave horror elements into a fairly conventional narrative yields diminishing returns in this overly stylized effort. Read full review
50

Los Angeles Times |
Temple is dependable if uninspiring, and Keough has yet to develop much in the way of screen presence - in the film, her short dark hair and doughy features look sculpted to maximize her resemblance to her grandfather, Elvis Presley. Read full review
50

Variety |
If Benicio del Toro designed Hallmark cards, or if "Lady and the Tramp" were lesbians, they'd have a lot in common with Jack & Diane, a well-constructed, well-intentioned but too deliberate attempt to provoke the unprovokable. Read full review
50

New York Post | Sara Stewart
Tonally, the film swings between whispery romance and ominous horror as it explores the dark side of love and lust, including an amusingly gory meditation on the notion that the person you think is your beloved might just rip your heart out. Read full review
40

Time Out New York |
The story of a young woman (Juno Temple) discovering that she is both a lesbian and a werewolf, Bradley Rust Gray's oddball horror parable starts with an irresistibly trashy premise and proceeds to treat it with the po-faced pretentiousness of a film-school thesis. Read full review
40

Village Voice | Nick Schager
Although enthralled by brooding, self-absorbed teenagers, the film doesn't present a single believable one. Read full review
40

The New York Times | Jeannette Catsoulis
Jack & Diane offers a glaring example of a writer and director, Bradley Rust Gray, unable to trust in the simple strength of his material. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Jack and Diane on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says not for kids Teen girls' romance has strange, gory overtones.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Jack & Diane is a teen romantic drama with strange, gory horror overtones. For some reason, the female teen lovers turn into monsters during dream sequences. There's shocking violence, spurting blood, and eating of human organs, as well as some disturbing interludes involving what looks like growing/moving hair among human organs. In addition to scenes of the lovers kissing and fondling each other and more, there are also uncomfortable/upsetting sexual scenes involving teens on the Internet (a teen girl is drugged, and two boys masturbate on her unconscious body). Teens also drink regularly and occasionally smoke cigarettes. Language is likewise strong, with uses of "f--k," "s--t," and "p---y." Jack & Diane has been billed as a horror film, but teens who watch it with this in mind will surely be disappointed.

Families can talk about Jack & Diane's violent scenes. What is their impact? Are they necessary to the story?
How does the movie depict sex? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.
How do the characters deal with sex on the Internet? Are they victims or survivors? Is there a better way to deal with these things?
What audience do you think the filmmaker is trying to appeal to? Does he succeed?

The good stuff

Positive messages: The love story here doesn't have much of an arc, and characters don't really learn to communicate, nor do they change or improve much. They do learn to trust one another, but it's not clear whether this leads to anything good.
Positive role models: One character is a pushover, and the other is highly damaged with a very thick skin. Neither changes much. Even the adults don't offer much in the way of guidance or responsibility.

What to watch for

Violence: It's not entirely clear why, but occasionally the girls turn into monsters and eat each other, though this appears to happen only in dreams. There's a good deal of blood and sudden, shocking violence. One character is seen munching on what appears to be a human liver. There are strange interludes every so often that feature what looks like hair growing or moving in and around various bodily organs. One character gets into a car accident on her skateboard, and her face is scraped up for most of the movie. Both characters get bloody noses from time to time. One girl loses a tooth.
Sexy stuff: One scene depicts a video viewed on a porn website in which a college girl is drugged, and two college boys masturbate on her unconscious body. In another scene, a male teen manipulates a photo of a naked woman to make her breasts appear bigger. The two main teen girls begin a love affair that includes lots of kissing, some bottom squeezing, some phone sex, and finally a tender, awkward sex scene (with one naked breast seen). One of the main characters meets a second lover for sex (nothing is shown). A main character attempts to shave her pubic hair; viewers see the area covered with shaving lotion.
Language: Language isn't constant but includes several uses of strong words like "f--k," "s--t," "motherf---er," "p---y," "ass," "retarded," "bitch," "creamed," "slut," "a--hole," and uses of "God" and "Jesus Christ" (as exclamations).
Consumerism: In one scene, the girls have a contest to see who can keep "Atomic Fireball" candy in their mouth the longest.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Teens regularly drink beer at parties and clubs, though they never really appear drunk. One of the main characters smokes a cigarette in one scene.

Common Sense Media 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.