In effect, Personal Best was among the first of a rising tide of gay and lesbian films with relatively positive messages. For the first time, gays and lesbians began to find love in the movies, and... happy endings began to be seen.

| May 6, 2024

It's fun, like any sporting event. And, like some record-breaking sporting events, it's defining, because in it women are seen as strong, vital and magnificent, and the lovers seem not extraordinary because of their homosexual liaison.

| May 26, 2020

How this film sees a woman's body is, for American cinema, revolutionary.

| May 19, 2020

Personal Best is a winner, thanks to its rich characterizations and the interesting behind-the-scenes look it gives us into its unique milieu.

| Nov 20, 2019

The camera too often records and predicts what a lascivious man would want to see rather than an aesthetic observer.

| Aug 16, 2019

The leads are convincingly athletic, the characters well drawn.

| Oct 22, 2018

[Robert] Towne's direction can be frustrating - at one point Donnelly and Hemingway run up a sand dune for what seems like five minutes - but the result is 50 percent more realistic than the average sports film.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 30, 2018

But "Personal Best" only jogs along sometimes: It suffers from fleshing out.

| May 30, 2018

Producer-director-screenwriter Robert Towne has fallen dismally short of his own personal best.

| May 30, 2018

The camerawork is occasionally fussy and over-reliant on sporting clichés, but this is still subtle, sensual stuff.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 30, 2018

Which horrible Eighties haircut to choose? Regardless, you'll be rewarded with some of the most startling and texturally stunning American cinema of that largely barren zone shortly thereafter to be known as the Reagan era. Score!

| May 30, 2018

Robert Towne's Personal Best is a flashy, hip and quite fascinating investigation into the arduous process of working out sexual identity in today's narcissistic society and culture.

| Apr 28, 2018

Personal Best has a quality rare in movies now: ambition worn lightly. This looks like a small, simple movie, but it's hardly modest.

| Jan 10, 2018

[VIDEO] Although screenwriter Robert Towne's directorial debut fell largely on deaf ears when it was released in 1982 "Personal Best" remains a powerful examination of high-stakes female athletes during the late '70s...

| Original Score: A | Jan 9, 2012

Endowed with remarkable performances, superb photography, and a clear vision of what matters to its characters, Personal Best is an underappreciated gem in a genre full of filler.

| Original Score: 72/100 | Jun 27, 2009

Personal Best is likable precisely because it is so unembarrassed.

| Aug 4, 2008

Towne has a love of slow motion that's employed as if he's afraid you might miss one, rippling muscle. Worse than that, when people aren't exercising, they are often talking about exercising.

| Aug 4, 2008

There's no questioning its authenticity.... However, the movie tends to make its points early and then repeat itself unnecessarily.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 20, 2008

The sort of nerve required to produce an excellent screenplay like Chinatown seems to have deserted Towne in this, his directorial debut.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 24, 2005