The movie goes nowhere, and Ms. Cody's screenplay is relentlessly talky while standing still.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 23, 2013

Hough sleepwalks through Cody's worst effort to date as a writer and only supporting turns by the always-game Russell Brand and never-bad Octavia Spencer save the film from being a strong candidate for the worst of the year. It still comes close.

| Original Score: 1.0/5.0 | Oct 21, 2013

Cody's satiric knocks on Christians couldn't be more blundering and obvious. Yet her dialogue is often funny, and the unusual three-way friendship is refreshing.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 18, 2013

Cody has concocted a modern-day "Alice Through the Looking Glass," with none of the danger or wit.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Oct 17, 2013

The problems with "Paradise," Diablo Cody's first directing effort and fourth produced screenplay, begin almost immediately ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 17, 2013

Neither train wreck nor triumph, it's proof that the author of "Juno," "Jennifer's Body" and "Young Adult" retains an ear for pungently funny turns of phrase and intriguing blends of rage and forgiveness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 17, 2013

Cody's directorial debut will not leave you wanting more.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 17, 2013

Paradise boasts the broadest, most saccharine tendencies of its writer and first-time director. In Cody terms, it's a doodle that can't be undid.

| Original Score: D | Oct 17, 2013

The movie fits around its heroine the way a shell fits its turtle-it's like she secreted it.

| Oct 15, 2013

Lacks the fresh, zingy immediacy of Diablo Cody's other works.

| Original Score: 5.7/10 | Oct 15, 2013

A tiresomely sarcastic maturation adventure, in which actors like Holly Hunter and Octavia Spencer renege on their goodwill.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 15, 2013

The film smartly avoids the sort of cynical hijinks that characterize the majority of Vegas-set flicks, though it can't come up with anything more compelling to place in its stead.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 14, 2013