Saved! (2004)

Comedy / Drama

1 hr. 33 min.

Dark teen comedy about a Baptist high school-attending girl (Jena Malone) who gets impregnated by her gay boyfriend, and is ostracized and demonized as all of her former friends turn on her. Screened at Sundance '04 and produced by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe.

Rated PG-13 for strong thematic issues involving teens - sexual content, pregnancy, smoking and language

Directed by: Brian Dannelly

Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Chad Faust, Patrick Fugit

Theatrical Release Date: 5/28/2004

Release Type: Limited

U.S. Box Office: $8,786,715

Video/DVD Release Date: 10/05/2004

Distributor: United Artists

Country: USA

Language: English

Offsite: IMDB | Official Site

CRITIC	RATING	QUOTE
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert	8	Saved! is an important film as well as an entertaining one.
Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt	5	After bravely lampooning an institution so many consider beyond reproach, Saved! chickens out, imparting its most direct and lasting message in its disappointing conclusion: Don't Offend.
E!	8	While poking fun at religion is nothing new, this sharp send-up wears its weird and sinister nature proudly on its sleeve.
filmcritic.com Chris Barsanti	6	The satire never quite scores because it doesn't dig deep enough.
New York Post Lou Lumenick	5	Slackly paced if well acted, it starts out as a fairly promising, if relentlessly stereotypical, satire of the religious right before turning into a lecture on tolerance.
TV Guide Ken Fox	6	...the film exhausts itself long before it's over.
Reel Tim Knight	8	Whip-smart and acerbically funny, Saved! is a potent antidote to the rash of mindless teen comedies cut from the same, tired mold.
Slant Magazine Ed Gonzalez	2	An early contender for the worst film of the year...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers	8	...an acutely perceptive and boldly hilarious satire of fundamentalist education...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman	6	The director-cowriter, Brian Dannelly, has great fun tweaking the way American Christianity has been born again as a commodified, suburbanized, pop-saturated belief system.
New York Times A. O. Scott	4	...the tone veers unsteadily from mockery to preachiness, and the story loses its breath, hopping from one clumsily paced scene to the next.
Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis	6	...a soft-bellied, sweet-tempered satire about Christian fundamentalism...
People Leah Rozen	6	...an energenic comedy...
LA Weekly Ella Taylor	8	...funny and irreverent...
Village Voice Michael Atkinson	5	A teen comedy spewing from within a Jesus-freak sensibility, the movie makes the fatal error of trying to mollify its targets and ameliorate its own scorched earth.
Onion AV Club Keith Phipps	4	...a halfhearted mediocrity.
Premiere Susannah Gora	9	...boasts both wicked satire and a big heart, and as a result, is nothing short of brilliant.

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This movie is available on DVD/Video

ALL AVERAGE CRITIC RATING	6.1
AVERAGE USER RATING (13 ratings)	7.5

USER REVIEWS:

midnightchickens 8

It pulled off being a religious movie without being preachy.

joecon86 6

I thought it was funny. It probably would have been funnier if I could have stayed awake during the last hour. I think it would have been even more funny if Mandy Moore had gotten into a fistfight with the pregnant girl and somehow caused a miscarriage. That would have been ironic because then Mandy Moore would have gone to HELL!

Wynns 7

Having lived through a school very similar, I laughed all the way through this thing. It might have been because of my own perspective on it, but I enjoyed it a lot.

This movie also contains a sleeper quote that strikes me as being more worthwhile then the movie as a whole. After being hit by a thrown bible, "This is not a weapon!"

crazy 9

I loved! this movie. Smart, very smart, and funny. "The Bible is not a weapon."

stevilbot 8

i loved this movie. it puts the spork in the side of the hyper-righteous kids you knew in high school and twists it. there are several great lines in this movie and it positively drips with jesus lovin' irony. highly recommended if for no other reason than to enjoy seeing mccaulay culkin in a wheelchair smoking.

madmitch 7

Funny. I wondered what McCauley was up to.

dack 6

The first half is a smart, sassy near-Heathers-quality satire on religious education and Christianity. Then it loses its edge and ends up in feel-good mush-land. Still worth a rental for the first 45 minutes, but I can't give it a full recommendation.

etherdust 6

The first half was pretty good, but then it sort of stalled. Liked the satire and wished it had carried all the way through, but it's marred by a predictable ending.