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The Beanie Bubble

The Beanie Bubble

2023

Kristin Gore, Damian Kulash

Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook, Geraldine Viswanathan ...

5.5

255

Drama Inspired by the story behind one of the biggest speculative crazes that blazed through American culture in the 90s.

	Media	Author	Review
		Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter	"Using plenty of news and archival footage from the period, 'The Beanie Bubble' well conveys its ’90s setting, with Renee Ehrlich Kalfus’ excellent costume design"
		Peter Debruge Variety	"A flamboyant if understuffed satire of the ’90s plush toy phenom"
		Tara Brady Irish Times	"'The Beanie Bubble' may be the cuddliest critique of capitalist greed and workplace sexism of the year (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Nate Richard Collider	"This biopic about toys is only moderately fun to play around with"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Perhaps Malcolm Gladwell is the man to tell the Beanie Baby story. This film fails toPerhaps Malcolm Gladwell is the man to tell the Beanie Baby story. This film fails to (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Pete Hammond Deadline	"Sly and smart biopic of ’90s toy phenomenon"
		Peter Martin Screen Anarchy	"[It] functions as a reasonably entertaining historical document that the 90s were just as crazy as every other decade"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"Too corporate to be funny, too fuzzy to be cruel"
		Wendy Ide The Guardian	"Understuffed tale of a fluffy fad (...) Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks and Sarah Snook are wasted (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Alex Maidy JoBlo	"Funny when it needs to be and dramatic where it counts, it is a solid directorial debut for Gore and Kulash that will have anyone who invested in Beanie Babies slapping their heads, wondering what the hell they were thinking"
		Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"Zach Galifianakis captures the narcissism of Chicago’s Ty Warner (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Noel Murray Los Angeles Times	"[It] eventually runs out of steam. The snappy pace and colorful style — so attractive at first — later become alienating, keeping nearly all the characters locked into one dimension"
		John Wilmes Chicago Reader	"A talented cast goes to waste in this charmless origin story"
		Nadir Samara Screen Rant	"Sarah Snook, Elizabeth Banks, and Geraldine Viswanathan, who are the key to 'The Beanie Bubble's' success, do not disappoint (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"There is so much non-chronological storytelling, you’d think this was 'Oppenheimer'. But Gore is no Christopher Nolan (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Tim Robey Telegraph	"It’s audiences who are being taken for a ride (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Christian Gallichio The Playlist	" A great Zach Galifianakis performance cannot save this messy I.P. driven film"
		John Serba Decider	"It’s frustratingly flimsy"
		Amy Amatangelo Paste Magazine	"The movie is more nuanced than I anticipated (...) it is a cuddly, enjoyable and often humorous edition of the American dream gone awry"
		Jayne Nelson Radio Times	"A fun, nostalgic romp, though it often sacrifices substance for laughs (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"The understuffed drama of a Nineties toy craze"
		Bob Strauss San Francisco Chronicle	"[It] does an admirable, if overlong, job of charting the creative, corporate and cultural rise and fall of Beanie Babies while richly examining its four main characters (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		John Nugent Empire	"Sometimes the storytelling can feel like a stretch, but this is mostly a lively, well-told account (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut	"'The Beanie Bubble' is more of a marketing ploy to take advantage of fans’ new-found appetite for nostalgia rather than character or story. (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Kate Stables Total Film	"A playful, punchy tale that spills the beans about those Babies. Zach Galafianakis' tantrum-prone tycoon transfixes (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"You'll learn little more from 'The Beanie Bubble' than you would from a Wikipedia page, and you'll have slightly less fun doing so (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"
		Nina Metz Chicago Tribune	"Tiny treasures, massive workplace drama"

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