Metacritic reviews

Feels as true as a documentary, as painful as a blow to the heart.

Jolting, superbly acted film.

A true achievement -- no matter who eventually wants to take, or deny, credit for its creation.

An inflated yet gut-slugging film.

While this movie is sometimes overbaked, it is the first major studio release in a while to engross wall-to-wall.

The movie can't explain as much as it wants to about what makes (and unmakes) a skinhead, but it carries us a fair distance.

Trenchant and visceral, American History X may not be perfect, but it's a darn sight better than good.

For all its surface verisimilitude and for all its focus on a problem that couldn't be more current, this film can't manage to feel more than sporadically real.

As a visit to a world and a way of life most of us will never experience, American History X is vivid, and it feels honest. At the very least, it's not typical.

A mess of a film.