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Home Room

Play trailer Poster for Home Room R Released Sep 5, 2003 2h 12m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
55% Tomatometer 22 Reviews 78% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A deranged teen kills several fellow students, leaving "it girl" Deanna Cartwright (Erika Christensen) alive but badly wounded. Police Detective Martin Van Zandt (Victor Garber) suspects that student Alicia Browning (Busy Philipps), a misunderstood outsider who wasn't hurt, had a role in the murders. The police start monitoring her activities, and, at the behest of police and school officials, Alicia visits Deanna at the hospital. But the meeting yields an unexpected result.
Home Room

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Honorable intentions and some strong performances aren't enough to keep Home Room from occasionally slipping into distractingly didactic messaging.

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Critics Reviews

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Lisa Kennedy Denver Post Alicia and Deanna's journey toward friendship, or at least a truer understanding, is moving. Rated: 2.5/4 Sep 12, 2003 Full Review Kirk Honeycutt The Hollywood Reporter In the midst of this didactic, self-conscious movie about a high school shooting comes an extraordinary and intense performance by a young actress named Busy Philipps, which elevates the whole picture. Sep 8, 2003 Full Review Lou Lumenick New York Post Overall, it plays like the world's longest -- over two hours -- after-school special. Rated: 2/4 Sep 5, 2003 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 4/5 Jan 22, 2013 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 4/5 Dec 6, 2005 Full Review Christopher Null Filmcritic.com Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 3, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (203) audience reviews
Audience Member Between 2.5 and 3 stars. This story of an atypical relation could have been better, but it would need more depth. When you see the end, you feel it could have been much better. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Dark and heavy. I didn't enjoy it at times, but it definitely kept my interest. (First and only viewing - 9/8/2019) Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review flixster f Might have appreciated it better had I not gone in with the assumption that it's about the school shooting (and what leads to it; a la "Klass") instead of the after-effects. But still, the movie is quite flawed for what it is. Tries to make a social commentary which gets lost somewhere in all the melodrama. The actress playing Alicia wears too much make-up for what her character requires. Fails to generate the emotional effect it should have aimed for and ends up as a teen drama (almost leaning towards a chick flick) overall. To worsen it all, it's unnecessarily lengthy. That could have been avoided in the very least. If you're looking for A LESSON IN EVIL, this isn't the right one. Having said that all, it's not as bad as some movies I've recently watched. "Go figure" as Alicia might have said!! Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I have loved this movie since i was 14 and I first saw it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Takes some disturbing and turns it into a different creature. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member Following an episode of gun violence in a small town high school, outsider Alicia is practically forced to spend time and help a girl who survived the shooting while being investigated on the episode. The film also has heavy dramatic backdrops in the history of the individual characters. While it inevitably looks like the less stylised version of Gus van Sant's Elephant, and has a dull pace and a screenplay often filled with clichés, one cannot deny that it has its dramatic impact and also find the conversations between the two girls compelling and thought provoking. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Home Room

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Cast & Crew

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Paul F. Ryan

Director

Busy Philipps

Alicia Browning

Erika Christensen

Deanna Cartwright

Victor Garber

Det. Martin Van Zandt

Holland Taylor

Dr. Hollander

Ken Jenkins

Police Captain

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Home Room

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Movie Info

Synopsis A deranged teen kills several fellow students, leaving "it girl" Deanna Cartwright (Erika Christensen) alive but badly wounded. Police Detective Martin Van Zandt (Victor Garber) suspects that student Alicia Browning (Busy Philipps), a misunderstood outsider who wasn't hurt, had a role in the murders. The police start monitoring her activities, and, at the behest of police and school officials, Alicia visits Deanna at the hospital. But the meeting yields an unexpected result.
Director
Paul F. Ryan
Producer
Ben Ormand
Screenwriter
Paul F. Ryan
Distributor
DEJ Productions, Innovation Film Group
Production Co
Homeroom LLC
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 5, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 6, 2017
Runtime
2h 12m
Sound Mix
Surround