60
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardWhile Roger Ebert’s screenplay contains overt jabs at Hollywood’s culture of exploitation, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls cannot be called anything but sincere regarding its penchant for buxom female anatomy.
- 80Time OutTime OutWith his first movie for a major studio, Meyer simply did what he'd been doing for years, only bigger and better. That's to say, he turned the homely story of an all-girl rock band's rise to fame under their transsexual manager into a delirious comedy melodrama, soused in self- parody but spiked with dope, sex and thrills.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineRuss Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is an outrageously entertaining cult classic, and probably one of the most bizarre movies ever produced by a major Hollywood studio.
- 75The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayTogether, Ebert and Meyer produced an unhinged spoof of soapy melodramas and hippie iconography, so over-the-top in its violence and libertine sexuality that no one in 1970 quite knew what to make of it.
- 60EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanNot a sequel to the bland film of Jacqueline Susann’s trashy best-seller, this is more like a demented remake, alternating modish psychedelia with deliberately square moralising.
- 50The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyAny movie that Jacqueline Susann thinks would damage her reputation as a writer cannot be all bad. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls isn't—which is not to say it is any good.
- As bad as Ebert’s screenplay is, Meyer’s direction is just as choppy. The film also looks ugly.