Pleasantville
3 Oscar Nominations
Rent/Purchase
Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.
What critics thought
Pleasantville won over most critics with its dazzling black-and-white-to-color visual concept and pointed social commentary, but a vocal minority felt the allegory grew heavy-handed and the storytelling lost discipline in its final stretch. The sharpest fault line was whether the film's ambition justifies its reach — some saw a near-masterpiece undermined by its own eagerness to explain itself, while others thought the technical elegance masked a surprisingly shallow script.
“a provocative, complex and surprisingly anti-nostalgic parable wrapped in the beguiling guise of a commercial high-concept comedy”
Joe Leydon·Variety
“Pleasantville is ultramodern and beautiful. But technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends; certainly it's got none of the depth, poignance, and brilliance of The Truman Show, the recent TV-is-stifling drama that immediately comes to mind.”
Entertainment Weekly
“Pleasantville doesn't have the consistent internal logic that great fantasies require, and Ross just can't resist spelling everything out for the dim bulbs in the audience. That's a real drag, because the film's fundamental premise—crossing America's nostalgia fixation with Pirandello and the Oz/Narnia/Wonderland archetype—is so damn cool, the film really should have been a masterpiece.”
Andrew Johnston·Time Out New York
“one of the best and most original films of the year”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorGary Ross
StarringTobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels
ComposerRandy Newman
Pleasantville
3 Oscar Nominations
Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.
What critics thought
Pleasantville won over most critics with its dazzling black-and-white-to-color visual concept and pointed social commentary, but a vocal minority felt the allegory grew heavy-handed and the storytelling lost discipline in its final stretch. The sharpest fault line was whether the film's ambition justifies its reach — some saw a near-masterpiece undermined by its own eagerness to explain itself, while others thought the technical elegance masked a surprisingly shallow script.
“a provocative, complex and surprisingly anti-nostalgic parable wrapped in the beguiling guise of a commercial high-concept comedy”
Joe Leydon·Variety
“Pleasantville is ultramodern and beautiful. But technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends; certainly it's got none of the depth, poignance, and brilliance of The Truman Show, the recent TV-is-stifling drama that immediately comes to mind.”
Entertainment Weekly
“Pleasantville doesn't have the consistent internal logic that great fantasies require, and Ross just can't resist spelling everything out for the dim bulbs in the audience. That's a real drag, because the film's fundamental premise—crossing America's nostalgia fixation with Pirandello and the Oz/Narnia/Wonderland archetype—is so damn cool, the film really should have been a masterpiece.”
Andrew Johnston·Time Out New York
“one of the best and most original films of the year”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Cast & Crew
DirectorGary Ross
StarringTobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels
ComposerRandy Newman
Rent/Purchase