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Anywhere but Here

Anywhere but Here

Drama · Comedy · Romance · 1999

Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.

Movie details

Anywhere but Here

“A story of a mother who knows best... and a daughter who knows better.”

1999 Drama · Comedy · Romance 1h 54m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.2 / 10

19.4K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

64 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

59 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Single mother Adele August is bad with money, and even worse when it comes to making decisions. Her straight-laced daughter, Ann, is a successful high school student with Ivy League aspirations. When Adele decides to pack up and move the two of them from the Midwest to Beverly Hills, Calif., to pursue her dreams of Hollywood success, Ann grows frustrated with her mother's irresponsible and impulsive ways.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Anywhere but Here?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Wayne Wang

Written by

Mona Simpson · Alvin Sargent

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon

Adele August

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Ann August

Hart Bochner

Hart Bochner

Josh Spritzer

Eileen Ryan

Eileen Ryan

Lillian

Ray Baker

Ray Baker

Ted

John Diehl

John Diehl

Jimmy

Shawn Hatosy

Shawn Hatosy

Benny

Court is in session

Put Anywhere but Here on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.