The defence The Prestige Tourist
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Hard Candy
Drama · Thriller · 2006
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.
Movie details
Hard Candy
“Strangers shouldn't talk to little girls.”
2006 Drama · Thriller 1h 44m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.0 / 10
172.9K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
67 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
58 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
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.
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 Hard Candy?
For the defence
The Prestige Tourist
“You like your greatness pre-approved.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe 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.
One Hour Photo
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Sy Parrish has lovingly developed photographs for the Yorkin family since their son was a baby. But as the Yorkins' lives become fuller, Sy's only seems lonelier, until he eventually convinces himself he's part of their family. When Sy's picture-perfect fantasy collides with an ugly dose of reality, a bizarre and thrilling confrontation ensues.
Sleeping with the Enemy
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A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
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After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.
The Good Son
Drama · 1993
A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle, and befriends his cousin who's the same age. But his cousin begins showing increasing signs of psychotic behavior.
The Crush
Thriller · 1993
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
Careful What You Wish For
Drama · 2015
A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.
The Ghoul
Drama · 2017
A homicide detective goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist he believes is linked to a strange double murder. As his therapy sessions continue the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur.
Trust
Crime · 2010
A suburban family is torn apart when fourteen-year-old Annie meets her first boyfriend online. After months of communicating via online chat and phone, Annie discovers her friend is not who he originally claimed to be. Shocked into disbelief, her parents are shattered by their daughter's actions and struggle to support her as she comes to terms with what has happened to her once innocent life.
Natural Born Killers
Crime · 1994
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Nightmare Alley
Crime · 2021
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
David Slade
Written by
Brian Nelson
Elliot Page
Hayley Stark
Patrick Wilson
Jeff Kohlver
Sandra Oh
Judy Tokuda
Odessa Rae
Janelle Rogers
G.J. Echternkamp
Nighthawks Clerk
Cori Bright
Girl in Nighthawks (uncredited)
Court is in session
Put Hard Candy on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.