All Critics (97)
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Top Critics (30)
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Fresh (81)
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Rotten (16)
Winstead and Paul make their characters feel like flesh and blood, not stereotypical Lost Weekenders. Their love is as real as their future is shaky. And that's the film's great tragedy.
The camera work is handheld and jittery, reflecting Kate's often wobbly state of mind, and the character's decidedly nonglam wardrobe, minimal makeup and charm-free home feel honest and right.
Winstead, a relative newcomer, handily carries this slender film.
It's an addiction-and-recovery movie without the usual side-effect of wallowing melodrama.
Winstead is an inarguably warm actor. She's just not doing the sort of work that transcends the movie's shortcomings.
Smashed belongs to Winstead.
In under eighty minutes, Smashed succeeds in so many ways.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead comes into her own in this lightly directed and disarmingly enjoyable film, which delivers its message without the aid of a soapbox.
Winstead is a revelation as a young married school teacher determined to overcome alcoholism in this gritty film clearly made by folks who've been there.
For what it sets out to achieve and the amount it chooses to portray, Smashed does a solid job - made all the more notable thanks to Winstead.
Despite taking a full-on approach to the issue of alcoholism, filmmaker Ponsoldt undermines his own case by telling a story about the problem itself rather than the people caught up in it.
Has an outstanding central performance from Winstead that demonstrates Kate's emotional and intellectual understanding of the complexities of alcoholism.
Smashed is a smart, sensitive and appropriately uncomfortable watch, offering an unrelentingly clear-eyed view of dependence, both emotional and substance-based.
[I]t's Winstead who is the real wonder... with an artless authenticity that is at once heartbreaking and heartening.
A film that's good on general atmosphere, totally sincere and not too sentimental.
There is an understanding of human frailty that makes the film more appealing than the subject matter might suggest.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the essential cog in James Ponsoldt's insightful drama.
Winstead gives a very good performance: muddled, scared, but courageous.
Wheedling and hectoring by turn, ham-dram to the hilt, full of small ideas and Big Acting, the film trails talentlessly in the wake of Days of Wine and Roses.
Largely meeting its modest goals, it's a nuanced take on patterns of dependency, and the best chance yet for this feisty young actress to prove her mettle.
Involving and occasionally powerful alcoholism drama, anchored by a stunning central performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead and some impressive direction ...
A film that is unafraid to recognise that, for some, a life spent drunk is easier (and much less boring) than fighting a disease with no permanent cure.
Smashed is a fine little film, but I'm not convinced that it grabs.
The sharp ends in Smashed are here for all to see, and Ponsoldt never shies away from their spiky, thought-provoking effect. Yet he also finds grace and warmth in the story.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead's vulnerability, turmoil and pain as she faces the challenges of beginning a new life without the crutch of booze are heartbreaking as well as courageous.
There will never be another Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor, but Hollywood may have found a new Lee Remick in Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
17%
46%
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Top Critic
