title of the film comes from the term "slaughter rule." The unofficial rule provides for an athletic competition's premature conclusion if one team is ahead of the other by a certain number of points prior to game's end. The rule helps to avoid humiliating the losing team further. Release The film premiered in January 2002 during the Sundance Film Festival. Later that year, the film entered the South by Southwest Film Festival and the AFI Film Festival. It went into limited release nationwide beginning January 2003. Critical reception On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 31 reviews, and an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A bleak but original indie, The Slaughter Rule benefits from outstanding performances by Ryan Gosling and David Morse." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". While the performances by Morse and Gosling were generally received positively, some reviews of the film criticized the script. Reviewing the film for The New York Times, Stephen Holden praised the performances of Gosling and Morse, but opined that the film is "confused" and "doesn't have much dramatic momentum". In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Manohla Dargis praised the film's cinematography but wrote that although the film has the virtue of sincerity, the story is "over-explained". Joe Leydon of Variety claimed the script "plays like a first draft". However, Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle thought that the "writing and directing team of twin brothers Alex and Andrew Smith have made an astonishingly good first feature". J. R. Jones, writing in Chicago Reader, described the film as "powerful" and especially praised David Morse's performance. Accolades The film received the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2002 Stockholm Film Festival and the Milagro Award at the 2002 Santa Fe Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2003 Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. References External links Official site 2002 films 2002 independent films American LGBT-related films Films set in Montana Films shot in Montana High school football films LGBT-related drama films 2002 drama films 2002 LGBT-related films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films