The website's critical consensus states that the film is "a cautionary tale that rings true." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In a positive review, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly compared Moncrieff to Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, writing "Each has a knockout storytelling voice and works with a raw, innately feminine strength that scrubs away the soapy film from sad sagas." Writing on David Strathairn's performance, Stephen Holden of The New York Times said his "complex, exquisitely nuanced portrayal of a man who goes over the line allows his character to be both hero and villain, sometimes at once." Agnes Bruckner was lauded for what many critics called a breakout performance. Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune wrote Bruckner "delivers an indelible portrait of a girl on the brink of womanhood finding her own artistic voice and sense of purpose." Though some critics, like Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, cited the film's more melodramatic turns as drawbacks, they still praised the film as sensitively directed and well-acted. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 and 1/2 stars out 4. He decried the film's R rating, reasoning the film has "no nudity, no explicit sex and only ordinary adolescent language", and lamenting the fact that young people who would benefit from seeing this "valuable cautionary tale" would not be able to see it. Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote, "Primarily a character study, Blue Car has the feel of a novel in which the characters linger in one's memory well after the book has been read," and that the film "is like an unpolished sapphire, at once harshly realistic and resplendent." The film was also New York's pick for "sleeper hit of the fall." Awards and nominations Chicago International Film Festival New Directors Competition - Karen Moncrieff (nominee) Independent Spirit Awards Best First Screenplay - Karen Moncrieff (nominee) Best Female Lead - Agnes Bruckner (nominee) Woodstock Film Festival Honorable Mention for Best Feature Film - Karen Moncrieff (won) References External links 2000s teen drama films 2002 films American teen drama films 2000s coming-of-age drama films Films about educators Films about writers Films directed by Karen Moncrieff 2002 independent films Films about scandalous teacher–student relationships Films about child sexual abuse Films about suicide Films set in Ohio Films shot in Ohio