79
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirThe most powerful documentary I've seen all year, and one of the two or three best films ever made about an artist or musician.
- 90The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe film is much more than a biography of the Clash’s guitarist and lead singer: It’s history, criticism, philosophy and politics, played fast and loud.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanCaptures the Joe Strummer who, in the late 1970s, just about firebombed the rock establishment with his fury.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayTemple introduces viewers to Strummer the punster, Strummer the womanizer, and Strummer the poseur, whom his mates could only really talk to when no one else was around.
- 80Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoThe film is a rigorously thorough biography and an impassioned accolade. Temple spends as much time on Strummer's life before and after the Clash as he does charting the band's powerful musical and political influence.
- 75PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyAt its best, it throbs with immediacy, just as Strummer did.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoCompelling viewing, even for people who don't care a bit for the punk scene.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceTemple's engrossing portrait of the Clash's late frontman uses endlessly suggestive montage to show how he kept punk's precepts alive, even after he left the music and eventually the earth itself.
- 60New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAt least the movie never bogs down. But you only get a taste of what made the Clash for a brief period the most exciting band on that side of the Atlantic.