Hard Candy
Rent & Buy
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.
What critics thought
Hard Candy is a two-hander that critics largely found tense and unsettling, carried almost entirely by Elliot Page's performance in what many called a career-defining debut. The division falls squarely on the film's extended torture sequences: some critics found them a bold escalation of a clever premise, while others felt the script collapsed into exploitation, and at least one found the whole thing morally indefensible in a post-Abu Ghraib moment. The performance is rarely disputed; everything built around it very much is.
“There is undeniable fascination in the situation as it unfolds... Seen as a film, seen as acting and direction, seen as just exactly how it unfolds on the screen, Hard Candy is impressive and effective.”
Roger Ebert·RogerEbert.com
“grabber of a sicko setup... It's a memorably tense pas de deux, and if the movie doesn't pay off on it properly, fault a script that ventures further and further into psychological thriller claptrap, leaving the two stars to rely on their hefty talents to keep it at all believable.”
Steve Schneider·Orlando Weekly
“I'd rather have this movie obliterated from my memory.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- moderate
- Profanity
- moderate
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- severe
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Hard Candy
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.
What critics thought
Hard Candy is a two-hander that critics largely found tense and unsettling, carried almost entirely by Elliot Page's performance in what many called a career-defining debut. The division falls squarely on the film's extended torture sequences: some critics found them a bold escalation of a clever premise, while others felt the script collapsed into exploitation, and at least one found the whole thing morally indefensible in a post-Abu Ghraib moment. The performance is rarely disputed; everything built around it very much is.
“There is undeniable fascination in the situation as it unfolds... Seen as a film, seen as acting and direction, seen as just exactly how it unfolds on the screen, Hard Candy is impressive and effective.”
Roger Ebert·RogerEbert.com
“grabber of a sicko setup... It's a memorably tense pas de deux, and if the movie doesn't pay off on it properly, fault a script that ventures further and further into psychological thriller claptrap, leaving the two stars to rely on their hefty talents to keep it at all believable.”
Steve Schneider·Orlando Weekly
“I'd rather have this movie obliterated from my memory.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- moderate
- Profanity
- moderate
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- severe
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Cast & Crew
Rent & Buy