53
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversAmateur is Hartley heaven, a sharp-witted thriller that takes off into dark and uncharted territory.
- 80VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyJust as quirky and idiosyncratic as the Gotham-based writer-director's earlier efforts, this one pushes the spiky humor a bit more to the fore while unfolding a tale loaded with offbeat oppositions and odd character detailing.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAmateur is a curious mixture of high art and delicious campiness, and the result is a funny, insightful, and almost-hypnotic motion picture.
- 67Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleAmateur offers the inimitable Hartley style with a harder edge than his earlier films, and while the thriller elements of Amateur prove entertaining on a bigger scale, this entertainment may not endure for viewers not completely committed to Amateur's characters and Hartley's slow-motion storytelling.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertI found the idea of the plot more interesting than the plot itself, and am finding the movie more fun to write about than to see.
- 50San Francisco ExaminerWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ExaminerWalter AddiegoThe particulars of the plot don't make a great deal of sense, but Hartley's films have much more to do with style, or rather a philosophical refusal to show emotional involvement.
- 40Los Angeles TimesPeter RainerLos Angeles TimesPeter RainerHartley turns what might have been a lurid pulp thriller into a freeze-dried art thing. He squeezes all the juice out of pulp. [19 May 1995]
- 38Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrExcept for a few coups de style, Amateur is a screenful of cool nothingness. [05 May 1995]
- 30Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumIf you can swallow one more amnesia plot and one more recycling of favorite bits from Godard's Bande a part, pressed to serve yet another postmodernist antithriller about redemption, this has its compensations.
- 25San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAmateur gives the impression of a sloppy first draft. It begins with a splash, meanders until it reaches feature length, then ends abruptly.