Metacritic reviews

Deliriously expressionistic visually and aurally.

I thought Rumble Fish was offbeat, daring, and utterly original.

The most amazing thing about this amazing movie may be that in the end it communicates the large uncertainties and small hopes of a twisted, inarticulate adolescent boy perfectly, and wordlessly. [14 Oct 1983]

A triumph of romantic impulse over stylistic indulgence. [21 Oct 1983]

The stunning black-and-white cinematography in Francis Coppola's Rumble Fish functions rather like a cold compress, subduing a film that is otherwise all feverish extremes.

Rumble Fish is the messiest, most provocative inkblot of the year.

Rumble Fish is another Francis Coppola picture that's overwrought and overthought with camera and characters that never quite come together in anything beyond consistently interesting.

The action is clotted and murky, and Coppola obviously hasn't bothered to clarify it for the members of his cast, who wander through the film with expressions of winsome, honest befuddlement.