Alpha Dog Critic Reviews

Don't be fooled by the presence of some pretty-boy actors: Alpha Dog is a gritty, gut-wrenching and disturbing film.Read the full review

Alpha Dog isn't a happy movie, but it's dramatically solid and the impressions it leaves will not be easily shaken.Read the full review

The movie suffers from an uncertain structure, but it boasts an extraordinary naturalism, not particularly flattering. Sharon Stone has a brilliant, harsh turn as Zack's mom, and both Bruce Willis and Harry Dean Stanton have good turns as the elder generations of Trueloves. But the movie belongs to its youngsters, and it's a real eye-opener.Read the full review

Writer-director Nick Cassavetes' sprawling dramatization recklessly blurs the line between reconstruction and reality in ways that are admittedly interesting, if more than a little artistically suspect.Read the full review

The whole thing is dizzying, like "Moulin Rouge" without songs and dances extolling love.Read the full review

All the bright colors Cassavetes splashes on the canvas don't make Alpha Dog art.Read the full review

Timberlake walks off with the movie. Too bad it's not worth stealing.Read the full review

As it escalates to a nasty conclusion, Alpha Dog doesn't have the moral or emotional weight of tragedy. These aren't the psychologically exploded youths of "Rebel Without a Cause," or even "The Outsiders." They're characters in a long, violent, unbleeped episode of MTV's "Cribs."Read the full review

The cretins rule in Alpha Dog, which has much the same entertainment value you get from watching monkeys fling scat at one another in a zoo or reading the latest issue of Star magazine. Of course a little of that nasty stuff may land on you, but such are the perils of voyeurism.Read the full review