The Paperboy fails to gel despite its strong cast.

| May 18, 2022

Call it Tennessee Williams by way of Jerry Springer.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 20, 2022

Set in the late 1960s, the movie is tactless, shameless and almost proudly seedy. Nevertheless, it is always highly watchable, prone to truly fascinate an audience as it also genuinely appalls them.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 19, 2018

Whether you want to see it or not is more or less the same the decision as whether you want to go to Florida itself. You probably do, even if you don't care to admit it. Like the state itself, it's just so much trashy fun.

| Oct 17, 2018

Efron's performance alone is worth taking a chance on Daniels' otherwise patchy picture.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

Ultimately, The Paperboy is to be enjoyed for its ultra-camp performances, so delightfully hammy and over the top that they swiftly become mesmeric.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2018

Fetid, scuzzy, revolting, funny, erotic, perplexing and provocative, it's like the bastard child of Cape Fear, Written On The Wind and Killer Joe.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 5, 2017

If you like that freaky, perverted feeling of spying on an even bigger freak show, you will find this film both fascinating and horrible to watch.

| Aug 14, 2017

Daniels turns out to be the ideal director for a film about the tendency of desire to turn sane minds to guacamole.

| Nov 9, 2016

[Daniels] can't find his directorial bearings.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 9, 2016

The Paperboy doesn't deliver.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 9, 2016

The Paperboy is not all bad, but it isn't all good either. I'm not quite sure what Daniels wanted his audience to walk away with.

| May 10, 2016

There's something undeniably compelling about the cast's daringly go-for-broke performances... but Daniels fragments the narrative and throws in so many tricksy directorial touches that the whole thing becomes an annoyingly indulgent mess.

| Aug 4, 2013

The sweaty, lurid, self-serious nonsense is hard to take seriously, but I'll say this much for the film: it ain't boring. 


| Original Score: C | Jul 21, 2013

I'll just get it out of the way now: The Paperboy is unbelievably awful.

| Jun 28, 2013

If you're bothered by frequent utterances of the "N-word" and the sight of Kidman spreading her talent - and her gams - wider than Sharon Stone in 'Basic Instinct,' you're gonna wanna look away from this sick, sizzling display.

| Original Score: B- | May 26, 2013

While there's much here about family loyalty and a 'don't mess with the swamp' aspect, Daniels' film has nevertheless been most discussed for its sex stuff, with every character having some sleazy secret or a scene devoted to their raunchy pleasure.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 2, 2013

A seething, swampy murder investigation infused with the sweaty smell of bodies and driven by a casual force that is seductively unstable, darkly funny and strangely exhilarating. Daniels is a visionary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 23, 2013

The Paperboy is flawed, more deserving of a rubbernecking than a viewing. But it's hard to tear your eyes away.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 20, 2013

You certainly couldn't accuse anyone involved in The Paperboy of playing it safe, and for this reason, Lee Daniels' film is one to file under misjudged must-sees.

| Mar 20, 2013