American History X Critic Reviews

This is the sort of incendiary role a lot of actors would kill for, yet the shock of Norton's performance isn't its showboat flamboyance. It's that he makes this sadistic junior sociopath rueful and intelligent.Read the full review

An inflated yet gut-slugging film.Read the full review

Jolting, superbly acted film.Read the full review

While this movie is sometimes overbaked, it is the first major studio release in a while to engross wall-to-wall.Read the full review

A series of well-drawn sketches and powerful scenes, in search of an organizing principle.Read the full review

May be flawed, but it's not easily forgotten.Read the full review

It's a testament to Norton's utter immersion in the role that he can even halfway connect the dots between this fundamentally sweet, brainy kid and the magnetic, white trash monster who'll haunt our minds long after the movie's liberal pieties fade into static.Read the full review

Trenchant and visceral, American History X may not be perfect, but it's a darn sight better than good.Read the full review

There may be much to like about his movie, but it's all been done before to more challenging degrees of moral ambiguity. That's a pretty fatal flaw.Read the full review