A Slipping Down Life

Name: A Slipping Down Life
Director: Toni Kalem
Released: 1999

Synopsis

A young woman becomes obsessed with a small-time North Carolina rock singer.

75
Christian Science Monitor
Taylor is utterly believable even when the screenplay (from an Anne Tyler novel) is too self-consciously quirky, and Pearce nicely portrays the guy she obsesses over.
70
Los Angeles Times
The casting of Taylor gives the film a powerful center, a bright light that keeps it on course.
60
L.A. Weekly
Struggles valiantly to keep its head above whimsy, and though the movie finally succumbs to an excess of heartwarming, it's a promising college try from a first-time writer-director.
50
The New York Times
A Slipping-Down Life has a worn, scruffy feeling. It gazes lovingly at vintage clothes and battered old cars as if they were the visible signs of authenticity, wishing that its morose, disconnected inhabitants could somehow be touched with the same elusive quality.
42
Entertainment Weekly
Taylor does that thing she does when she whispers as if she has just discovered speech; Pearce enjoys himself doing his own singing, and embracing grunge.
40
Variety
A curiously bland drama that fails to fulfill the promise of its early scenes.
40
The A.V. Club
The two leads help create an atmosphere of quiet surety, but they can't elevate the film beyond its self-imposed smallness.
40
Village Voice
While the camera unsuccessfully courts Southern gothic humor, caressing a hodgepodge of retro-fetish knickknacks, the actors' knowing glances seem to look beyond the confines not only of the town, but of the film itself.