Critic Reviews
|
100
|
USA Today Claudia Puig
A musical detective story, this enthralling documentary focuses on a little-known American musician whose haunting voice and poetic lyrics were essentially unknown in his own country, but had a massive impact across the globe.
|
|
100
|
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
"Searching" has emotional valleys and zeniths, and gasp-inducing turns, as old friends, fans and Rodriguez's grown daughters are interviewed.
|
|
100
|
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The information they eventually dislodge about Rodriguez suggests a secular saint, a deeply good man, whose music is the expression of a blessed inner being. I hope you're able to see this film. You deserve to. And yes, it exists because we need for it to.
|
|
100
|
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams
It starts as a bittersweet parable about the cruelty of commerce, but the wonder of Searching for Sugar Man will not soon slip away.
|
|
90
|
Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
The truth-is-stranger-than-fiction saga has been a hit on the festival circuit, winning top documentary prizes at Sundance for Sweden's Bendjelloul. What sets Searching for Sugar Man apart, though, is the way in which the filmmaker preserves a sense of mystery in the telling.
|
|
90
|
NPR Ella Taylor
Intentionally or not, Searching for Sugar Man catches all that - the fleeting moments of triumph and the years of endurance, the accumulation of family and the unquenched dreams - and doesn't presume to sew it all up for us.
|
|
80
|
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Rodriguez's story is almost inconceivable in an obsessively magnified, heavily hyped Internet era. Which makes it all the more important to be shared. Listen, be moved, and pass it on.
|
|
75
|
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A fresh and unexpected documentary that plays like a nail-biting mystery and a ticket to ride the whirlwind where art and commerce do battle.
|
|
75
|
Movieline Michelle Orange
Sugar Man is most interesting when it touches on the conditions that combined to draw a cult hero out of some decent music and a generously enabled, imagination-firing mystique.
|
|
67
|
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The yarn is too irresistible: We're fed plenty of sugar in this authorized fairy tale, but are left hungry for beef.
|
|
50
|
The Hollywood Reporter
While all the interview subjects are enthusiastic, the overall lack of familiarity with Rodriquez's personal background and career collapse begin to drag.
|
More Critic Reviews
See all external reviews for Searching for Sugar Man (2012) »See also
Awards | FAQ | User Reviews | User Ratings | External Reviews | Message Board
