White Bird in a Blizzard 2014

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: [A] clunky, ugly and dull mash-up of a mystery about a missing housewife - and her daughter's sexual coming of age. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: "White Bird in a Blizzard" is an alibi for Mr. Araki to flex his considerable muscle as a visual artist, using a palette that ranges from the blissful to the grotesque ... Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Woodley's depiction of Kat is low-key, natural and utterly unaffected; as she has in every role, she makes the character her own, with her scratchy little voice and level gaze. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Beyond the prurient, there's not much of interest in this dour portrait of middle-class family values. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: It's easy to be distracted by (and possibly even to dismiss) "White Bird" as a tarted-up Nancy Drew mystery without recognizing it's a complex take on how teens must break away from their parents to become their own person. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: It's Woodley's typically forthright, heartfelt performance that keeps White Bird aloft. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Green in particular seems to be channeling the bride of Frankenstein for half her scenes. It's an awkward mix of styles, and it doesn't work. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: 'White Bird in a Blizzard" develops engine trouble early on, right around the time it asks us to accept Eva Green as a desperate suburban housewife. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: Too much good stuff to dismiss, despite a dull and desultory plot. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Although ostensibly a mystery about the disappearance of a middle-class suburban housewife and mother, there is little in the way of dramatic urgency or psychological insight into the central role of the bereft daughter. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Araki's campy-clunky, crass-for-crass'-sake adaptation of the 1999 novel by Laura Kasischke needed a full rethink. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: There's a fine line between stylized and campy, and Araki defiantly crosses it, in any number of cringe-in-your-seat, can-you-believe-this-dialogue, my-gosh-that-feels-fake moments. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "White Bird in a Blizzard" is a film that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There's simply not enough of the rude passion that must have drawn Woodley to work with Araki in the first place. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Its elements don't really cohere. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: An enjoyable, if uneven, adaptation of Laura Kasischke's coming-of-age novel about a teenage girl whose mother vanishes into thin air. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "White Bird in a Blizzard" is an odd little concoction, a coming-of-age story that, only in passing, is also a mystery. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: If [Woodley's] so capable in a film misfire like this, imagine her next solid production. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: All this sounds a lot more fun than it actually is. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "A melodrama about numbness and detachment, writer-director Gregg Araki's adaptation of Laura Kasischke's novel is a paradox on paper and an anesthetized dud on screen." Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Araki has never made a boring movie, even if his brand of too-fast-too-soon sexual awakening has become something of a crutch. Read more

Danny King, Village Voice: If the results are occasionally broad and schematic, the actors (Woodley especially) are anything but ... Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: [An] evocative, gorgeous, occasionally maddening film. Read more