The People Vs Larry Flynt 1996

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Smart, funny, shamelessly entertaining and perfectly serious too. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Woody Harrelson plays Flynt with energy, and Courtney Love does at least as well as his wife. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: In its excesses and extravagances, its fascination with sex, religion, celebrity, bad taste and making a whole lot of money, there is no more American story than that of combative pornographer and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: An exultant comedy of American repression and revolt. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Thanks to the light humour, it's consistently engaging; yet minus that darker shading, it's never fully convincing. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: A brave, spectacularly entertaining -- and unexpectedly stirring -- account of Flynt's life that asks us to regard the publisher of Hustler magazine as an invaluable champion of our First Amendment freedoms. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: You don't have to like the man to support his struggles and enjoy this dramatization of them. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Love proves she is not a rock star pretending to act, but a true actress, and Harrelson matches her with his portrait of a man who has one thing on his mind, and never changes it. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: The People vs. Larry Flynt is ultimately a worse disappointment than an out-and-out stinker would be, because of its lively, entertaining first half. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a modern-day Capra film, about an unorthodox businessman who's persecuted for his originality but eventually is recognized for the lovable, rugged American individualist he truly is. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: The exploitative misogyny of Flynt's output is never examined, the prurient hypocrisy and intolerance of his persecutors seriously overplayed, plus Larry and Althea's odd romance lacks bittersweet conviction. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: One of the truly bizarre careers in recent American cultural life provides the source of tart and tasty amusement in The People vs. Larry Flynt. Read more

Washington Post: Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: We're really celebrating Hollywood's freedom to create biographies of anyone, no matter how high or low on the social ladder, and still come up with the same banal characteristics, messages and conclusions. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: An enormously entertaining and surprisingly touching bio-pic. Read more