Critic Reviews

• Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times

  Golden-hued, feel-good treacle, the sort that the U.K. has tried to export ever since Billy Elliot.

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  The golden-hued cinematography (a filming cliché that really needs to be retired) and the sometimes slack direction by Marc Evans are minuses ...

• Stephen Holden, New York Times

  At various moments this endearing but sudsy movie, which spills all over the place, evokes "High School Musical," "Glee" and "Billy Elliot."

• Joel Arnold, NPR

  Hunky Dory flits along blithely from number to transporting musical number until it ends - with a sigh - and dodges any authentic engagement with its own ideas.

• Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

  Enthusiasm carries the day in this paint-by-numbers period tale, which is just charming enough to coast on its own clichés.

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  Hunky Dory has some pleasant things in it, but unfortunately, the funereal pace makes a snail look like a jackrabbit.

• Brent Simon, Shockya.com

  A period piece spin on Glee, as filtered through the gauzy lens of underclass-artistic-exuberance that's plagued a subset of comedic-leaning British imports ever since Billy Elliot.

• Prairie Miller, WBAI Radio

  A lyrically and emotionally intense coming of age tale. Touching on a teacher's struggle against the educational establishment in a search for the liberating musical self-expression of her students.

• Betty Jo Tucker, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

  Although not perfect, 'Hunky Dory' offers much to admire. For example, the film's glorious finale almost took my breath away.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  Director Marc Evans and screenwriter Laurence Coriat fumble both the musical side of their movie and the coming-of-age side.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  An appealing drama set in Wales in 1976 about a high school rock opera version of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

• Aaron Yap, Flicks.co.nz

  It's pleasant, forgettably feelgood and unabashedly hackneyed, doing everything you expect it to - nothing more, nothing less.

• Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

  Dory has a spark that never catches fire, leaving the bulk of its personality up to Driver and her interesting take on the often strange moods of this coming-of-age musical drama.

• Paul Gallagher, The List

  There's at least one sub-plot too many, but audiences willing to suspend disbelief will be swept up as the greatest high school band in the history of music perform an impeccable selection of hits.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  The earnest playing of the orchestra and the lo-fi warbling touch the heart in a way that a more polished production might not.

• Siobhan Synnot, Scotsman

  If Hunky is hellishly clunky, it's also good-hearted and well-intentioned with some laughs and decent tunes.

Read all 16 critic reviews