Gimme Shelter 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: An after-school special blown up on the big screen, it stridently aims to inspire you. More likely, it'll make you cringe. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: A clunky movie that feels as if it's underwritten by the Catholic Church. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It is the galvanizing force of Vanessa Hudgens who catapults Gimme Shelter above the heartbreaking level of soap opera with a lancing effect. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Cogently written and powerfully acted, it's a story about an outcast pregnant teen desperately seeking to survive in a world from which she feels all hope has fled. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: The film is hamstrung by its fidelity to real-life inspirational models. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: Hudgens isn't a bad actress, but she isn't a natural in this role. A viewer is constantly aware of how hard she is working, which puts a wall between her and the audience. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Hudgens' best work here is physical. She eats voraciously, like an animal, and exudes a mix of anger, sadness and deep discomfort. Her spoken lines are less effective, and that's partly due to a script often filled with cliches. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: It is unlikely to convert the unconverted, in part because of its uneven performances, but mostly because it raises more questions than it answers. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: What remains is a poor man's Precious, with all the earlier film's go-for-broke melodrama but none of its weirdness or empathy for the impoverished. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Gimme Shelter suffers from an acute case of the fakes. The speeches sound like speeches, and not good ones. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Hudgens captures both the defiance and fear of a girl at this crossroads. Her performance elevates what's often a trite and heavy-handed script. Read more

Kate Erbland, Film.com: Occasionally striking, often embarrassing. Read more

Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter: Intended dramatic grit lands more squarely in the realm of after-school special. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Filled with very good intentions, very bad dialogue and a surprisingly affecting turn by its star Vanessa Hudgens. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: We're asked to exhale, unclench and drop the politics to see Gimme Shelter as the story of one girl and not a prescription for a nation. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A predictable story of redemption that happens awfully fast, to a girl who only seems to be in peril briefly - and has a rich dad to bail her out. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: We're drawn in because Hudgens is so good at making this wild child real. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: From an artistic perspective, Ron Krauss' heavy-handed drama, Gimme Shelter, fails almost entirely. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's so determined to deliver its moral that it loses its grip on the reality of its characters. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The result is awkward, hyped propaganda for faith-based initiatives and against abortion. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A happy-smiley Christian fairy tale disguised as a hard-hitting shard of social realism. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Writer/director Strauss embraces the spiritual elements of this story. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Gimme Shelter appears hijacked by the Christian right. Propaganda is a b**ch to act. And this misguided movie leaves Hudgens buried in it. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Gimme Shelter is an attempt at something grand, and though it doesn't get halfway there, it covers some ground. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Although it's superficially grungy, this true story isn't much more substantive than something that star Vanessa Hudgens might have made for the Disney Channel ... Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Over all this is further indication Hudgens is carving out an interesting, productive career path as a film actress. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: On the Venn diagram where "Preachy Kirk Cameron-esque sermon movie" overlaps with "former child star looking to prove his/her dramatic chops," you'll find the overwrought and undercooked Gimme Shelter. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Plays like an after-school TV special. Shot after school. At the gym. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: The kind of film that outfits a potentially compelling story with politically convenient signposts - not understanding that sometimes, getting out of the way of a good tale is the best kind of polemical strategy. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Gimme Shelter" doesn't trust the power of its own story - and the truth of its acting - to deliver the point. Read more