Critic Reviews

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star

  There's nothing like watching a guy hit rock bottom and then try to crawl back up again. Or as that heartless record industry weasel puts it, 'People love a good tragedy.' Especially one set to a good beat.

• Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

  You may ... find the picture as undisciplined as Frankie's wild coif. I see the chaos, like the coif, to be tangled but pointed, an endearingly calculated mess.

• Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune

  The formula doesn't entirely stick, but Dowse's visual veracity towers over any narrative shortcomings Tong presents.

• Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

  This is biopic as raving rumination. But it is also a surprisingly compassionate redemption story.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  The movie works because of its heedless comic intensity; Kaye and his writer-director, Michael Dowse, chronicle the rise and fall of Frankie Wilde as other directors have dealt with emperors and kings.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  A raucous, uproarious satire of the dance-club scene.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  This has writing that could charitably be called inane, and a wholly repulsive star.

• Joseph Proimakis, Movies for the Masses

  full review in Greek

• Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope

  One of the most graphic, scary, funny and imaginative depictions of drug addiction ever filmed.

• S. James Wegg, JWR

  The film soars on the talent of Paul Kaye's magnificent portrayal of a pop music icon's self abuse, descent into total deafness and rebirth ...

• Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

  O diretor Michael Dowse confere energia admirável a este filme espetacular que conta, ainda, com uma atuação arrebatadora de Paul Kaye.

• Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium

  Bright, noisy, and surprisingly fulfilling, it keeps its adrenaline rush under deceptively easy control.

• David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com

  At the center of all this is Kaye's flat-out brilliant performance.

• Dan Jardine, Cinemania

  Paul Kaye's performance is revelatory. A surprisingly warm-hearted mockumentary.

• Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star

  When Kaye tries to be funny, he's odd; when he tries to be sad, he's boring; and when he tries to be happy, he's . . . just weird.

• Mark Palermo, Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

  There's unexpected tenderness in the sincerity with which Dowse plunges into Disability Movie conventions.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  It's a mess, albeit a vaguely likable one.

• Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

  Surges along on wry dialogue and energetic scenes, mixing spot-on parody with comments on the exploitation of the handicapped and the fads of the dance music industry.

• Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

  A killer soundtrack and a performance all of volatile physicality by Kaye.

• Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion

  Wants to be tangy but comes off sour instead. It might just leave you with a bit of a headache, too.

Read all 24 critic reviews