| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

It's worth hanging on for where Greco goes with this.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 9, 2009

Movies don't come more personal than Canvas, writer/director/co-producer Joseph Greco's serious-minded exploration of the devastating effects unleashed by mental illness upon an otherwise tightly knit American family.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 12, 2008

Though Canvas may not deviate much from the formula followed by so many other movies about families imperiled by health crises, it's unusually perceptive about the ways that loved ones process (or fail to process) the resulting stress.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 12, 2008

There is something to be said for a filmmaker like Greco who takes the truth -- no matter how tough it is -- and turns it into a compelling drama about people we might know in life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 12, 2008

It's like a public service announcement with dialogue.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 11, 2008

[A] strong first feature.

| Apr 3, 2008

If it weren't for the terrific performances, Canvas would be a dull and lifeless film; Marcia Gay Harden explores the schizophrenic character of Mary with a judicial technique that is both compassionate and credible.

| Nov 10, 2007

Writer-director Joseph Greco makes a nice feature-film debut telling a true, disturbing story about a 10-year-old boy struggling to cope with a schizophrenic mother.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2007

Canvas just doesn't sketch a sufficiently vivid portrait.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 19, 2007

Canvas is worth seeing for the acting, but the disease-of-the-week conventions and hackneyed visuals pretty well knock the wind out of its sails.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2007

Greco succeeds where many others have failed in giving a real sense of what it is to grow up with a parent who's hobbled by mental illness.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 12, 2007

Greco takes his biggest risk, perhaps, when he puts that boat in water with father and son manning the sails. It could be a mawkish scene that sinks everything that came before it, but like the watercraft that symbolizes so much, the movie remains afloat.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 12, 2007

First-time filmmaker Joseph Greco draws on personal experience for this devastating yet honest portrait of an ordinary Florida family.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 12, 2007

Though Harden has the showier role, a subdued Pantoliano is the movie's real star. Sometimes, the quietest performances are the most powerful.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 12, 2007

Canvas is a serious film about mental illness and a sentimental heartwarmer, and succeeds in both ways.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 12, 2007

Canvas is a movie that rings emotionally true, despite structural contrivances and dim, washed-out color.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 12, 2007

Small and slow-moving, and not in a way that means finely detailed and pensive.

| Oct 12, 2007

Despite its admirable qualities, Canvas fizzles and falls into cliche.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 11, 2007