50
It tries too hard, but at least it's trying.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
A sexily chaotic parody of entitlement becomes just another tale of a white dude learning that there are worse things in life than essentially having no problems.
50
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
The film often defies expectations but also winds up sidestepping the kind of trapdoors and quicksand that might have made the ride more exhilarating.
50
Never feels as triumphant or as affecting as it should, but the script boasts some amusing meanness of spirit.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Amusing but not as funny or suspenseful as it could be.
58
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
If the behavior of the characters had been more recognizably human in its venality, and the film's perspective more ruthless, this custom-made compound might have worked.
20
Better Living Through Chemistry suggests a new cinematic rule: the more impressed a movie is with itself, the less likely it is to impress a discriminating audience liable to have seen all its silly little tricks before.
88
The end result of this stoned-cold picnic is both haphazardly successful and somewhat disappointing, but it’s worth seeing, thanks enormously to the tremendous charisma of Sam Rockwell.
50
McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore
The cloying narration and the inclusion of Fonda are just warnings for that moment, 70 minutes in, when this comic chemical train goes completely off the rails. Rockwell, Wilde, Monaghan are worth the price of admission, but “Better Living” would have been better off with more chemistry and less cutesy.
38
Rockwell is incapable of being boring, so there’s some small entertainment to be found in watching his buttoned-up beta male blossom into full Sam Rockwell.