Critic Reviews
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David Jenkins, Time Out
The insight-neutral scrag ends of what feels like ten decent documentaries on censorship, semantics, social policy and broadcasting coalesce in this painfully self-satisfied and poorly made 'shock-doc'.
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Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Anderson's glib approach is to the movie's advantage, allowing anything profound to seem unexpected.
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Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail
But in the end, F*CK is at most a compendium of opinions and examples, and never feels like a story.
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Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
But F*** gives short shrift to a question that many moviegoers may well ponder: How, exactly, has this word become a substitute for wit, or, in many movies, for dialogue?
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Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
If anything, the most vivid impression created by the movie is how much fun the word's use can potentially be and how its power is inevitably emboldened in direct proportion to the forces of decency lined up against it.
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Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
... It's a mere 90-some minutes long; it only feels like seven hours.
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Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
As Lenny Bruce famously pointed out, fuck is an important word because, "if you can't say fuck, you can't say fuck the government."
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Edward Porter, Sunday Times (UK)
As well as being humdrum, this is past its sell-by date: the film is a product of the Bush years, with the liberals making all the old complaints about Dubya's encouragement of cultural puritanism.
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Philip French, Observer [UK]
Smug, shallow, repetitive, unilluminating and rarely funny.
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Ed Andrews, Little White Lies
Despite its flaws, Fuck does manage to leave you energised and determined to fight to the death to defend freedom of speech - or at least sit back and fire off a few swear words of your own in celebration. Shit, piss, fuck, etc...
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
It's all reasonable but unoriginal stuff.
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David Parkinson, Empire Magazine
This could have been far more illuminating, challenging, or at the very least entertaining.
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Richard Luck, Film4
More of a TV documentary than a movie, but there's enough good stuff here to keep you from cussing.
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Wendy Ide, Times [UK]
An example of the very worst kind of documentary film-making. The picture contains no insight, no research and no etymological answers. It is simply a string of choppily edited interviews with comedians, porn actors and the morally outraged.
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Karl French, Financial Times
A moderately amusing documentary about the second most offensive word in the English language.
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Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Entertaining documentary with an admirable array of talking heads, though it doesn't dig nearly as deep as you'd expect and contains some baffling omissions.
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Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Maybe f*** is a bad word because we don't know where or how it started; who knows? Maybe we're just too f***ing sensitive...
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Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
This isn't really a documentary so much as a celebration -- of one word's power to twist people in knots.
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Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com
This film is probably not going to change anyone's view about this particular word, but it is an interesting, informative, and often entertaining take on the subject.
Read all 19 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Funny and controversial documentary, that investigate taboos in society about the word FUCK. Just like The Aristocrats, F*uck, is a entertaining film. Problem: the absence of answers and research. In this way, the documentary don't looks what really is the point, what the reason… More
Funny and controversial documentary, that investigate taboos in society about the word FUCK. Just like The Aristocrats, F*uck, is a entertaining film. Problem: the absence of answers and research. In this way, the documentary don't looks what really is the point, what the reason of the motion picture? Even Steve Anderson know. At least it's a fun trip.
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Great fucking documentary. Boone!!!
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What a great documentary. It examines the unusual etymology of the Eff word, as well as its cultural uses and the responses and reactions to it. It delves a little into themes around censorship, free speech and vulgarity, and I found it a really interesting semiological study. If… More
What a great documentary. It examines the unusual etymology of the Eff word, as well as its cultural uses and the responses and reactions to it. It delves a little into themes around censorship, free speech and vulgarity, and I found it a really interesting semiological study. If you're going to pick a specific word to examine and analyze, in its history and current incarnations, I doubt you could pick a more fascinating one. My one disappointment would be that they stopped short of talking about the En word, which would have been equally interesting.
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No budget documentary filled with talking heads which skates around the issues about profanity in society but fails to crystallize the central idea that the liberals need the moral defenders for their swearing to have its power. It was curious that for many the f-word had become… More
No budget documentary filled with talking heads which skates around the issues about profanity in society but fails to crystallize the central idea that the liberals need the moral defenders for their swearing to have its power. It was curious that for many the f-word had become mundane and the battle had moved on to the c-word - once that has fallen somebody will have to invent some new ones. A more interesting question to explore would have been why humans tend towards destruction when society doesn't impose moral boundaries.
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Umm, you expect so much more from this movie than it delivers. First of all, it shies away from saying the word "f-ck" as much as it can, which sort of negates the point it tries to make. Second, it is NOT a controversial movie at all, despite the misleading posters and… More
Umm, you expect so much more from this movie than it delivers. First of all, it shies away from saying the word "f-ck" as much as it can, which sort of negates the point it tries to make. Second, it is NOT a controversial movie at all, despite the misleading posters and teasers. I learned nothing, I laughed zero times, and I didn't feel the right to Freedom of Speech course through my veins. It wasn't a complete waste of time but I certainly thought others could've made it better.
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I wasn't offended, I just didn't find this very good!
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Fun flick that looks at the history and usage of one of the most scandalous yet overused words in our vernacular. Stays objective, though interviews folks from various sides of the morality argument. Worth it, in my opinion, just for Billy Connolly's contributions.
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A good movie, but less than comprehensive. Sure, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin were represented, but no Richard Pryor? And how do you make a documentary on the word FUCK without even mentioning Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet? Am I wrong?
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[font=Century Gothic]I don't use profanity in this blog because for me swearing is purely a spontaneous activity(if anybody would like to see an example, please join me at my bus stop any time the bus is running late) and I give a great deal of thought as to what I write here.… More
[font=Century Gothic]I don't use profanity in this blog because for me swearing is purely a spontaneous activity(if anybody would like to see an example, please join me at my bus stop any time the bus is running late) and I give a great deal of thought as to what I write here. Also I can easily be controversial without resorting to obscenities. But to review the documentary "Fuck," I have no choice but to use the title word. If that bothers you, relax. There is wholesome entertainment on the way for tomorrow.[/font]
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[font=Century Gothic]"Fuck" is an entertaining documentary that regretfully does not provide much new information. A variety of experts including Tera Patrick, Bill Maher, Sam Donaldson, Ron Jeremy, Ben Bradlee, David Milch, Ice-T, Janeane Garofalo, Kevin Smith and the late great Hunter S. Thompson(the documentary is dedicated to him) testify about fuck and its possible usages.(But where are David Mamet and Susie Bright?) In opposition, there are Michael Medved, Alan Keyes and Pat Boone(which group would you rather hang out with?) who want to see the clock turned back to the good old days before Lenny Bruce(Dick Schaap famously wrote that Bruce dying at the age of forty was obscene) and George Carlin rocked the world. The documentary tries to make a case that there is a concerted crackdown on free speech during the Bush administation which might be the case but it looks like an uphill battle. Fuck is in wider use in more liberal countries like England where it can be heard on television shows such as "Meadowlands" and "Hex."[/font]
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[font=Century Gothic]Fuck is a word whose origins are unclear and dates back to at least 1475. Clips testify as to the word's multiple meanings in popular culture.(Miles Davis even came up with a wide variety of meanings for motherfucker in his autobiography.) I think fuck works best as a strongly worded rebuke, especially in the film "The Front" and Ani DiFranco's song, "Every State Line."[/font]
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[font=Century Gothic]And one of these days, I have to get around to watching "Deadwood."[/font]
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I had very low expectations for this documentary about the f-word, I mainly watched it because there was a record breaking 824 uses of that special word in this 93 minute film and I wanted to hear what that sounded like. I also saw it because I have a great interest in first… More
I had very low expectations for this documentary about the f-word, I mainly watched it because there was a record breaking 824 uses of that special word in this 93 minute film and I wanted to hear what that sounded like. I also saw it because I have a great interest in first amendment issues, particularly ?broadcast indecency.? Because of my interest in the subject I didn?t hear much I didn?t already know, but the facts and clips were nicely arranged. There were a good variety of interview subjects here, including people against the use of the word. This is not particularly well made, but it was a nice curiosity, I can recommend this if you see it on cable.
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Just plain fun and educational. A great family film.
Read all 14 featured audience ratings
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