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Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds

Comedy · Drama · 1999

Whenever trouble strikes in one of her relationships, single mother Mary Jo Walker and her daughter, Ava, pack up and move to another city, a routine Ava is tiring of. This time, they are helped on their move to San Diego by trucker Jack Ranson. While Ava settles in, getting a leading part in the school play, Jack starts dating Mary Jo but soon reveals himself to be controlling and aggressive. Mary Jo prepares to flee again, angering Ava.

Movie details

Tumbleweeds

“They ran away from everything but each other.”

1999 Comedy · Drama 1h 42m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.7 / 10

3.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

82 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

75 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

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

Whenever trouble strikes in one of her relationships, single mother Mary Jo Walker and her daughter, Ava, pack up and move to another city, a routine Ava is tiring of. This time, they are helped on their move to San Diego by trucker Jack Ranson. While Ava settles in, getting a leading part in the school play, Jack starts dating Mary Jo but soon reveals himself to be controlling and aggressive. Mary Jo prepares to flee again, angering Ava.

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 Tumbleweeds?

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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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gavin O'Connor

Written by

Angela Shelton · Gavin O'Connor

Janet McTeer

Janet McTeer

Mary Jo Walker

Kimberly J. Brown

Kimberly J. Brown

Ava Walker

Jay O. Sanders

Jay O. Sanders

Dan Miller

Gavin O'Connor

Gavin O'Connor

Jack Ranson

Laurel Holloman

Laurel Holloman

Laurie Pendleton

Lois Smith

Lois Smith

Ginger

Michael J. Pollard

Michael J. Pollard

Mr. Cummings

Court is in session

Put Tumbleweeds 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.