Though claiming to be visiting for the weekend, Mick moves into the two friends' dorm and begins borrowing their clothing, attending their classes, reading their books, and flirting with Mary, a woman on whom Charlie has a crush.

"[6] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News praised Eisenberg for giving a "nicely understated performance" as an "endearing everyman" but felt that Ritter lacked the "necessary air of danger" the script calls for in his role.

"[8] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised the film for Durst's detail-oriented direction in capturing the early '80s, and the "sincere performances (most notably from Mr. Ritter and Eva Amurri as Charlie's upper-crust crush) and clever writing" for keeping it from being "maudlin" and for serving as "a prickly examination of the sturdiness of class boundaries and the illusion of inclusion.

"[9] Greg Quill of the Toronto Star pointed out that Elkoff's script carried elements of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his novel The Great Gatsby and had predictable revelations, but gave praise to the "sensitively and intelligently" written characters and Durst for being a storyteller with "great care and assurance" and an attention to detail regarding the film's time period without being showy about it, calling it "an earnest, if romanticized, examination of the American class system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the eternally confounding politics of acceptance and exclusion.

"[10] Despite skeptically regarding Durst's attempt to evoke viewer sympathy for the rebel Mick, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman applauded Ritter's "theatrical chops," comparing him to a "young Ethan Hawke on a bender of violence," and called him "an actor to watch.