Critic Reviews

• John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

  Music-centric doc offers an undepressing look at Lou Gehrig's disease.

• Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post

  [Becker] comes across as a warm, funny man blessed with a devoted family and friends.

• Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

  The film says frustratingly little about how everything is managed financially, but the perseverance by all concerned is beautiful to see.

• Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

  Jesse Vile's inspiring heartbreaker of a documentary is cleaved into two well-judged halves: We see Becker continuing on, robbed of speech and movement, yet undiminshed in his musical creativity.

• Michelle Orange, Village Voice

  Jesse Vile's expertly measured, emotional look at the life of a guitar prodigy cut down by ALS ...

• Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

  The story that remains is intriguing without being transporting - the facts are all there but the emotion is largely lost in translation.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  There are survivor tales, and then there is Jason Becker's, utterly jaw-dropping in its inspiration.

• Drew Hunt, Slant Magazine

  Jesse Vile's film, despite its best intentions, is merely a serviceable extension of his own fandom.

• David Parkinson, Radio Times

  Rivals Julian Schnabel's 2007 film The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly in its portrayal of human courage and fortitude.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  Becker's story is both tragic and inspiring, and his music, with which I was previously unacquainted, is exciting and impressive.

• Tara Brady, Irish Times

  Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet pays hearty tribute to Paganini-playing shredders and offers up a blueprint for dedicated care in the home and community.

• Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

  This humdrum documentary about Becker's life and work is content to wallow in feel-good platitudes and never really shows us what makes the man tick.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  It is impossible not to be moved and to feel that, despite all the horrible things that happen, there's something decent about humans after all.

• Grant Rollings, Sun Online

  We get lots of widdly, widdly solos that thankfully went out of fashion in the Eighties.

• Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express

  A moving, funny and uplifting documentary about a one-time guitar prodigy, Jason Becker, struck down a horrendous degenerative disease, ALS.

• Gregory Maule, Little White Lies

  A poignant subversion of your boilerplate rockumentary.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Justifiably celebratory and respectful, and it reaches out beyond the rock fanbase.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  The true tale of a rock guitar wizard struck down, yet miraculously not struck dumb, by motor neurone disease.

Read all 18 critic reviews