Thank god Alexander Payne actually figured out how to make a film interesting after this horrendous, arcless, cartoonish, shallow and obnoxious debut. What a letdown: an Alexander Payne film about abortion? The potential was through the roof!! But he ignored any attempts at making any kind of coherent statement about the debate and simply categorized everyone as a silly idiot and a stereotype for having any kind of opinion on such a controversial topic, making for an outright stupid theme. It made me chuckle once or twice, but other than that, this is worthless.

Even more than its ability to find fault with both armies in the fight over abortion, what makes this brilliant is that, in her twisted screw-up kind of way, Ruth has integrity. Hypocrites to the left her, zealots to the right, there she is- stuck in the middle with her unborn baby, but as easily swayed as she can be, she remains true to herself and what she wants and needs. The key moment comes when the pro-choice types insist on re-directing the "choice" conversation to plan for her abortion and she resists- insisting on HER right to choose. She's a slob and I wouldn't want to know her, but hand it to Ruth- she does it her way up to the end. Or as Ordell Robbie would say, "you can't always count on Ruth... but you can always count on Ruth to be Ruth."

Solid debut from Alexander Payne with an almost unrecognisible Laura Dern rocking the shit out of the lead performance

Low-end Alexander Payne. Top tier Laura Dern. Middle of the road everything else.

Broader and lacking the nuance of Alexander Payne's later work, has one or two moments but I wouldn't bother.

A scabrous, biting and blackly funny debut from Alexander Payne.

Laura Dern's turn as Ruth - a pregnant, solvent-abusing ragdoll tugged as political currency in an abortion debate - is comically tragic and tragically comic.

She imbues Ruth with a hard-to-like but hard-to-hate quality that later became the stock in trade for Payne's characters. Here he hits the sweet spot between savage social commentary (where each side is as misguided as the other) and having fun with such monstrous creations.

There's a depraved, guilty feeling that you shouldn't be laughing at the situation the characters are in but it poses the right questions about what pro-choice really means and gives Ruth a spectrum of emotional scenes to develop her beyond our first impressions.

A pregnant addict becomes a pawn in the battle between the pro-choice and pro-life movements. A very gutsy film that satirizes both sides of this touchy issue.

Good first feature for Payne. Lots of funny moments, and the film managed to stay neutral on the abortion debate. It took a while to get going, but once it did it was enjoyable.
Now seen every Payne film, I'd rank them as follows:
1. Election 2. Sideways 3. The Descendants 4. About Schmidt 5. Citizen Ruth

Thank god Alexander Payne actually figured out how to make a film interesting after this horrendous, arcless, cartoonish, shallow and obnoxious debut. What a letdown: an Alexander Payne film about abortion? The potential was through the roof!! But he ignored any attempts at making any kind of coherent statement about the debate and simply categorized everyone as a silly idiot and a stereotype for having any kind of opinion on such a controversial topic, making for an outright stupid theme. It made me chuckle once or twice, but other than that, this is worthless.

A fairly brilliant satire on the equally ridiculous tactics employed in the abortion debate. What a reminder that Alexander Payne used to make interesting films rather than the bland commercial grabs of late.

Considering how middlebrow his work is now, it's hard to recall Alexander Payne once made exceptional edgy comedies. Citizen Ruth is the ballsiest of them all, going full force at both pro-life and pro-choice radicals. It's sharp-toothed comedy at its finest thanks to the always wonderful Laura Dern. She finds humor in places where there shouldn't be any, crafting a character who's too self-centered and oblivious to realize her own awfulness. Most of the supporting cast is super, namely Mary Kay Place and Swoosie Kurtz. Burt Reynolds' appearance as an evangelical pro-lifer with a child assistant who massages him shirtless is a rare misstep; it's a broad joke in a film that's otherwise above that.