Back to trending
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

Drama · 1994

Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.

Movie details

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

“New York in the 1920's. The only place to be was the Algonquin, and the only person to know was Dorothy Parker.”

1994 Drama 2h 5m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.4 / 10

4.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

75 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

66 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

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

Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.

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 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle?

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.

Permanent Midnight

Permanent Midnight

Drama · 1998

Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.

The Doors

The Doors

Music · 1991

The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.

The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar

Drama · 2021

JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Bringing Out the Dead

Bringing Out the Dead

Drama · 1999

Once called "Father Frank" for his efforts to rescue lives, Frank Pierce sees the ghosts of those he failed to save around every turn. He has tried everything he can to get fired, calling in sick, delaying taking calls where he might have to face one more victim he couldn't help, yet cannot quit the job on his own.

A Love Song for Bobby Long

A Love Song for Bobby Long

Drama · 2004

A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.

The Brutalist

The Brutalist

Drama · 2024

When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and their lives are forever changed by a demanding, wealthy patron.

Lolita

Lolita

Drama · 1997

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

Valentino

Valentino

Drama · 1977

The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.

Factory Girl

Factory Girl

Drama · 2006

In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.

Charm City Kings

Charm City Kings

Drama · 2020

Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Alan Rudolph

Written by

Alan Rudolph · Randy Sue Coburn

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Dorothy Parker

Campbell Scott

Campbell Scott

Robert Benchley

Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick

Charles MacArthur

Peter Gallagher

Peter Gallagher

Alan Campbell

Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals

Gertrude Benchley

Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy

Eddie Parker

Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn

Horatio Byrd

Court is in session

Put Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle on trial.

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

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

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

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

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