...a relentlessly quirky comedy that remains curiously uninvolving for the duration of its short-yet-not-short-enough running time...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 22, 2023

The Clapper is a comedy that doesn't totally know what it wants to be, a commentary on fame and class or a romantic comedy. What we end up with is something that never really does both well and ends up hampering each theme.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 11, 2020

The Clapper is not a film for everyone. It is a small film that has some charm as a sweet oddball rom com but which falls short in exploring its characters.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 26, 2019

There's not much to applaud in this misguided offbeat comedy that fails to generate sufficient humor or poignancy from a broad satirical target.

| Jan 25, 2019

The thin premise lacks any compelling elements, is absent of any engaging characters, and eventually goes nowhere.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 21, 2018

An exercise in patience that rewards viewers with a tacked-on ending that simply reinforces the fact that this is a film filled with squandered talent and sloppy storytelling.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Nov 29, 2018

I expect shade will be thrown because of the film's low ambition, and it truly is (intentionally?) sloppy and doesn't have great production values, but the benchmark for stories is whether they can touch an audience and The Clapper does.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 25, 2018

The concept here had potential, but the execution makes it completely dead on arrival.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 25, 2018

Perhaps Montiel is after something bigger than what "The Clapper" ultimately offers, but it's not an ambitious picture, hitting easy targets with crude screenwriting and bland performances.

| Original Score: D | Feb 1, 2018

Though it's not exactly brilliant, this indie romcom is passably charming, and it finds offbeat atmosphere in an uncharted corner of Hollywood: scuzzy places where the glamorous would fear to tread.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2018

If it's supposed to be a comedy, it's not funny. If it's supposed to be a satire, it doesn't know what it's satirizing.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 26, 2018

The movie is a less assured version of Shira Piven's Welcome to Me, in which she and Kristen Wiig unleash the full neurotic potential of the "15 minutes of fame" expression. The Clapper only pays lip service to it.

| Jan 26, 2018

Montiel treats his story's happily unsung oddballs with sincere affection. He doesn't hold them up to ridicule, or insist that they snap out of their quirkiness and conform. But he doesn't quite know what to do with them.

| Jan 26, 2018

It's an interesting premise, but The Clapper doesn't live up to its namesake.

| Jan 25, 2018

There's zero real humor in The Clapper-at least not the kind we've come to expect from its stars.

| Jan 25, 2018

The screenplay is uneven, but the exceptionally strong cast makes it watchable.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 25, 2018

It may be early in the year, but it's a good bet "The Clapper" will land among 2018's worst films.

| Jan 25, 2018

Even at a time of year when movie companies typically unload their dross, the sheer awfulness of Dito Montiel's "The Clapper" stands out.

| Jan 25, 2018

A small movie with a big, generous heart, it never makes fun of its characters, even the guy who trots around Hollywood in a diaper, or the dude dressed up like a big baked potato.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 25, 2018

The Clapper hints at the psychological roots of Eddie's peculiar personality, but in the end it isn't at all interested in understanding the man. And that's because it's too busy making fun of him.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 23, 2018