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The Playroom
Directed by
Julia Dyer
Not Rated
2013
83m
Drama
5.3
52%
55%
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Four children in their attic hideaway make up a fantastic story, while downstairs their parents weave a drunken intrigue of their own.
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Where to Watch The Playroom
Hoopla
Free
The Roku Channel
Free
Tubi TV
Free
Apple TV
Rent $3.99
Buy $7.99
Cast of The Playroom
John Hawkes
Martin Cantwell
Molly Parker
Donna Cantwell
Cody Linley
Ryan
Olivia Harris
Maggie Cantwell
Jonathon McClendon
Christian Cantwell
Alexandra Doke
Janie Cantwell
Ian Veteto
Sam Cantwell
Jonathan R. Freeman
Clark Knotts
Lydia Mackay
Nadia Knotts
The Playroom Ratings & Reviews
Detroit News
Tom Long
You have your basic family psychodrama, except there's no real heat either downstairs or up.
Los Angeles Times
Sheri Linden
The film uses the upper-middle-class setting effectively, even as it resorts to heavy-handed symbolism and melodrama in its dour, mostly unforgiving portrait of parental dysfunction.
New York Times
Stephen Holden
"The Playroom" captures the malaise of mid-'70s suburbia with a merciless accuracy not seen since Ang Lee's 1997 film, "The Ice Storm."
New York Post
Kyle Smith
This imitation "Ice Storm" is as refreshing as a step into a puddle of slush.
AV Club
Noel Murray
What little story there is has no sense of real life, no matter much the film pretends to be about children learning hard truths.
Dallas Morning News
Chris Vognar
Modest in scale, it's the kind of American independent film that brings some honor to that shopworn descriptor.
Blu-ray.com
Brian Orndorf
It's a misfire from screenwriter Gretchen Dyer and director Julia Dyer, who can't connect the puzzle pieces, resulting in a movie of attentive performances working through ill-defined storytelling.
Film.com
Eric D. Snider
Covers its own ground with tender, sympathetic honesty that is refreshing and invigorating to watch.
Paste Magazine
Annlee Ellingson
In the tradition of The Ice Storm, The Playroom revisits 1970s suburbia, when the chilly civility between husband and Stepford wife bumps up against the sexual revolution.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Chris Hewitt
The stuff with the adults is drab and stale, but the kids' scenes are excellent.
Slant Magazine
Tomas Hachard
Lacking much in the way of character depth, the film attempts to fill the gap with melodrama.
NPR
Scott Tobias
Between the loaded conversations and metaphors, and the phony overlay of a children's fairy tale, The Playroom can't stop telegraphing themes and interpreting itself. There's nothing left for the audience to do.
Village Voice
Chris Packham
The Playroom jettisons all things cute, but still takes flight by portraying the characters, adult and juvenile, under direct lighting, and asking you if you care about them.
The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Scheck
Sensitively wrought family drama told from the children's perspective.
DVDTalk.com
Jason Bailey
'The Playroom' lands. The emotional arc is exhausting, and the details are all just right.
Common Sense Media
S. Jhoanna Robledo
Parents seek joy, ignore kids in difficult, powerful drama.
Cinemalogue
Todd Jorgenson
A reliance on melodrama prevents a deeper and more insightful glimpse into the characters and subject matter.
ColeSmithey.com
Cole Smithey
A chamber piece cousin to The Ice Storm, The Playroom hones in on the mentality of so many irresponsible '70s era parents whose children grew up to be much better people than their parents.
Shockya.com
Brent Simon
If The Ice Storm was a band, think of this as the minor-chord, label-unsigned, opening act for its opening act. Lovingly captured but dramatically inert.
IONCINEMA.com
Nicholas Bell
While the adults in the Dyer sisters' latest feature suffer the children, so do they suffer the patience of an audience desperately searching for a point of interest in the troupe presented to us here.
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