There's a lot of mysteries to solve here, but the most important one is whether or not anyone will find a worse film released in 2018.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 17, 2019

Directed by Shawn Christensen from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jason Dolan, The Vanishing of Sidney Hall meanders its way through an excruciating two hours, and seeing the film through to completion is like an exercise in self-flaggelation.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Apr 9, 2019

As hard as it tries - and, oh boy, does it try - The Vanishing of Sidney Hall is a film of artistic flourishes looking for a story it has no real clue how to tell.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 30, 2018

... while its subject matter may weigh heavy, the overall package is an emotionally engaging viewing experience for anyone willing to take the journey.

| Aug 6, 2018

It's ambitious, takes risks, and contains some finely crafted lines ("Life isn't very interesting unless you're a bit psychotic"), and yet I'm still not sure I could recommend you give up two hours of your life to see it.

| Mar 25, 2018

When a publicist tells Sidney, "You're being drunk and pretentious and I'm gonna punch you in the face," it's as if she's reading the minds of moviegoers.

| Mar 9, 2018

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of The Vanishing of Sidney Hall is that nobody told writer/director Shawn Christensen that his gag-on-impact green smoothie of dated arthouse tropes was, in fact, a comedy.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Mar 7, 2018

Swearing, implied abuse in "tortured artist" drama.

| Mar 2, 2018

Suffers from an air of affectation and artificiality made worse by the convoluted structure imposed on the narrative.

| Original Score: C | Mar 2, 2018

A well-plotted mystery that offers little beyond its plot.

| Mar 2, 2018

In the unlikely event that you've ever been truly curious as to how much M.F.A.-style toxic masculinity can be packed into one motion picture, you ought to check out The Vanishing of Sidney Hall.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Mar 2, 2018

The Vanishing of Sidney Hall requires the audience to feel for the title character but doesn't provide any reason to truly care about this person.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 2, 2018

The most passable lens through which to watch writer-director Shawn Christensen's risible indie drama "The Vanishing of Sidney Hall" is by counting the many ways it grates as both an agonized-artist pity party and a male fantasy of envied power.

| Mar 1, 2018

"Hall" isn't meant to be light, but it shouldn't be suffocating either, with Christensen piling on tragedies and hopelessness to a near-comical degree.

| Original Score: D | Mar 1, 2018

A tortured mystery dripping with pretentiousness.

| Mar 1, 2018

The Vanishing of Sidney Hall leaves little to the imagination and, by the end, a lot over which to be frustrated.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 1, 2018

Christensen favors dreamy shots of dusty libraries and desert horizons that, while beautiful, don't make up for the contrived plot driving Sidney toward his destiny.

| Feb 28, 2018

While there are a few intriguing themes and ideas at play in "The Vanishing of Sidney Hall," once the viewer perseveres through the over-editing the final product is disappointing.

| Original Score: D+ | Feb 27, 2018

The ambitious sophomore effort from Shawn Christensen and team is more about the journey than the big reveal.

| Feb 27, 2018

The seesaw of effect of oscillating between extolling Sidney's genius and lingering on his anguish begins to feel like a child slowly burning an ant with a magnifying glass, occasionally taking breaks to truly savor the harm he or she is committing.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 25, 2018