It's beautifully told, passionate and sensitive to the true story and the victims that lived it.

| Original Score: A | Sep 12, 2017

While it may be about as subtle as a swinging sledgehammer, it does leave its mark.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 15, 2009

A well-played if too-familiar story of oppression and injustice.

| Original Score: C+ | May 15, 2009

A conventional but wholly gripping docudrama.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 1, 2009

A torn-from-the-headlines tale of institutional racism and injustice in the Lone Star State of not-so-long-ago, American Violet might not be subtle, but it's certainly powerful.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 1, 2009

Director Tim Disney and screenwriter Bill Haney lay out Dee's story with a minimum of fuss. They are smart enough to realize that the material is compelling all on its own.

| Original Score: B+ | May 1, 2009

American Violet dramatizes Kelly's case, and does so in a way that will leave audiences applauding in their seats -- and wondering how much of the film is true.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 1, 2009

American Violet feels less like life and unreasonably more like the movies.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 30, 2009

Movingly told and packed with powerful subject matter.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 30, 2009

Thematically, there's a lot to like here, but the execution couldn't be more heavy-handed and two-dimensional.

| Apr 21, 2009

The narrative is infused with chilling facts, and the filmmakers know how to build their case, but a drama demands more.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 17, 2009

This flaw in the justice system might affect anyone, but American Violet shows how easily it can be racialized in a place where hardened social attitudes combine with drugs and poverty to create a permanent black underclass.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2009

Its blaring earnestness and thin characters (all of whom practically wear badges identifying them as good or evil) fail to add nuance to a story that keeps making the same point in virtually every predictable scene.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 17, 2009

American Violet is a justice story, with some honest justice. It's nicely reassuring that it happens to be true.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 17, 2009

American Violet, which is based on real events that took place in late 2000, has the quasi-documentary feel of a well-made television drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 17, 2009

Nicole Beharie makes one of the most thrilling feature film debuts in years.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 16, 2009

What does it taste like? There's a slight aftertaste of force-feeding, to be sure. But mostly, thanks to excellent, nuanced performances by Beharie, Woodard, Nelson and Patton, it tastes like justice.

Full Review | Apr 16, 2009

The film is more affecting than it ought to be, thanks to a loaded cast that includes Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Charles Dutton, and the rapper and sometime actor Xzibit.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 16, 2009

A docudrama that may have an outcome we already know, but is a loud lesson about truth, justice and the Texas Way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 16, 2009

An artlessly powerful performance by newcomer Nicole Behaire anchors American Violet, an instructive, sturdily built drama based on a true story worth teaching.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 15, 2009