- 8
Compelling and depressing, Alpha Dog proves that teenagers can not only be brainless, but ruthless as well.
—Skylaire Alfvegren E!
- 8
In his best film to date, Nick Cassavetes ... directs with ferocious energy, taking scenes past their logical stopping points and pushing his actors (particularly Foster, who can be as terrifying as Edward Norton in American History X) to, but never over, the precipice of absurdity.
—Scott Foundas LA Weekly
- 8
...swiftly paced and extremely compelling.
—Jim Hemphill Reel
- 8
This edgy and startling film definitely starts the 2007 movie year off with a bang.
—Pete Hammond Maxim
- 7
The movie is getting a negligible release as it is--a shove into the January dumping ground, where nothing survives for long. It deserves better.
—Robert Wilonsky Village Voice
- 7
...a vivid cross-section of little children, teenagers and parents acting like privileged, hedonistic gangstas who have soaked up one too many movies extolling that image.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 7
...eats us over the head with its portrait of wasted youth, clueless parenting and a society so self-centered that reality is something encountered in between drunken stupors and bong-smoking highs.
—Miriam Di Nunzio Chicago Sun-Times
- 7
...a worthy addition to the ranks of suburban youth like OVER THE EDGE, RIVER'S EDGE and Larry Clark's salacious BULLY.
—Ken Fox TV Guide
- 6
At its best ... the film offers a pointed critique of a youth culture that views someone like Jesse James Hollywood as a person to emulate.
—Ethan Alter Premiere
- 6
...has much the same entertainment value you get from watching monkeys fling scat at one another in a zoo or reading the latest issue of Star magazine.
—Manohla Dargis New York Times
- 6
...irresponsible, uncommercial but surprisingly watchable...
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 6
...Cassavetes strives too hard for meaning, but the performances are impressive and the characters compelling.
—Leah Rozen People
- 6
Director Cassevetes has a bit more than he can handle with this complex telling of a real-life tragedy, but he elicits believable performances from the young cast...
—M.K. Terrell Christian Science Monitor
- 5
...a noisy semi-True Hollywood Story...
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
- 5
...Cassavetes applies plenty of gritty style, but is unable to make any of it very compelling.
—Kevin Crust Los Angeles Times
- 5
...it's intermittently bemused or tragic, but utterly lacking a conscience or a point of view.
—Scott Tobias Onion AV Club
- 5
...inane, inauthentic and irritating...
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone
- 4
...boasts a menacing drum n' bass score and lots of meaningless split screen effects.
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine
- 4
For every moment that plays real there are at least two that absolutely do not, producing a wildly schizophrenic film that has many chances at greatness and misses nearly all of them.
—Chris Cabin filmcritic.com