This Must Be The Place (2011)

69% of critics liked it
(39 reviews)
77% want to see it
(1,175 ratings)

Cheyenne is a former rock star. At 50 he still dresses "Goth" and lives in Dublin off his royalties . The death of his father, with whom he wasn't on speaking terms, brings him back to New York. He discovers his father had an obsession: to seek revenge for a humiliation he had suffered. Cheyenne… More Cheyenne is a former rock star. At 50 he still dresses "Goth" and lives in Dublin off his royalties . The death of his father, with whom he wasn't on speaking terms, brings him back to New York. He discovers his father had an obsession: to seek revenge for a humiliation he had suffered. Cheyenne decides to pick up where his father left off, and starts a journey, at his own pace, across America. -- (C) Cannes

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 58 min.
Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino
Genres: Drama, Comedy

Studio: Trinity Distribution

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
Negotiating a consistent artistic path as steadily as a drunk walking a straight line, This Must Be the Place is all over the place dramatically, tonally and thematically.
Philip Concannon, The Skinny
[It's] made with all of the visual élan we've come to expect, but the pacing is leaden and the film lacks a sense of purpose.
Ed Gibbs, The Sunday Age
The film seems to be aiming for a whimsical flourish on an otherwise unpleasant subject. Its premiere at Cannes met with a mixed response. I remain underwhelmed.
Lisa Giles-Keddie, Real.com
Penn's performance may be understated in this, unlike his previous outspoken roles, but as Cheyenne he is just as stirring and memorable.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
Along the way there are occasional arresting images, but they prove minor compensations.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
It doesn't really work but it's very watchable all the same.
Alex Zane, Sun Online
A beautiful little film.
Allan Hunter, Daily Express
A great score from David Byrne puts the icing on this unruly but beguiling production.
Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
As it dragged on and on, I found myself wondering if a more accurate title might not have been another of Byrne's songs, Road To Nowhere.
Jason Best, Movie Talk
Funnier on screen than he's been in any part since permanently stoned surfer dude Jeff Spicoli in 1982's Fast Times at Ridegmont High, Penn is terrific in a film that's consistently quirky, often laugh-out loud funny and sometimes surprisingly poignant.
Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
A chaotic but undeniably striking road movie in which it's never quite clear who's in charge of the map.
Tom Seymour, Little White Lies
Worth catching for the stunning soundtrack and Sorrentino's mad direction.
Mark Stafford, Electric Sheep
A lot of it is terrific stuff, but there's just too much here to be digestible, too much to be resolved satisfactorily.
Tony Peters, Radio Times
The movie's constituent elements are nearly always striking, yet somehow they never add up to anything that speaks clearly to the head or the heart.
David Stratton, At the Movies (Australia)
This won't be to everyone's taste, as the mixture of moods can be unsettling at times -- but it's beautifully made and acted, very original, and conceived on a grand scale.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
What matters is the story that sets out to correct the perceived truth, to rattle the bars of predestination and acquiescence.
Graham Young, Birmingham Post
By turns quirky, endearing, infuriating and utterly, utterly barking mad.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
You're left with the feeling that Sorrentino's eccentric story and daring style masks just another movie about the healing powers of the road.
Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
This Must Be The Place is an ambitious experiment in form and tone, culminating in a precise failure... Like watching someone sprint into the ocean with the firm belief that they can make it to the other side before running out of breath.
, Scotsman
It's an intriguing patchwork of a picture, with all the direction of a wonky-wheeled suitcase.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Mark W

The joy in watching American road-movies tends to be the unexpected and vast array of colourful characters. This English language debut by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is no exception. It has all the hallmarks of the sub-genre and also benefits from a commanding and touching… More
The joy in watching American road-movies tends to be the unexpected and vast array of colourful characters. This English language debut by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is no exception. It has all the hallmarks of the sub-genre and also benefits from a commanding and touching performance from it's lead. Cheyenne (Sean Penn) was once a 80's glam rocker whose life and career came to a halt when two fans committed suicide after listening to his lyrics. He feels a deep sense of responsibility and guilt for the boys' deaths and struggles to get on with his own life. Years after the event, he hides away in Dublin with his understanding wife (Frances McDormand) but when news comes that his father has recently died, he heads back to America. It's here he finds a purpose and reawakening in himself, in hunting down an old Nazi war criminal that his late father had committed his life to finding. You just need to take one look at Sean Penn - with his straggly black wig and eye make-up - and you'd be forgiven for expecting this film for being some form of a comedy or parody of Glam Rock. It's not. What it is, is an off-kilter little that drama that possesses some real moments of beauty. It probably comes under the umbrella of an art-house road-movie and despite Penn's appearance, he delivers a heartfelt portrayal of a distant, childlike man, suffering from boredom and an unrelieved depression. It's, once again, a reminder of the unique abilities that Penn has as an actor and ranks as one of his best and bravest performances. It's also the catalyst for a lot of this film's believability. Although his character very rarely cracks a smile, this still elicits some genuine laughs with odd behaviour from an eclectic collection of very off-beat characters. As well as "Talking Heads" frontman David Byrne providing the songs and receiving a welcome and effective cameo appearance into the bargain. Harry Dean Stanton popping in late on, doesn't hamper it in any way either. Essentially, the film is about the journey though. Not just the physical, but the psychological and emotional ones as well and cinematographer Luca Bigazzi adds several welcome scenes of surreal beauty on the travels. However, it takes a sharp right-turn with the Nazi sub-plot that doesn't entirely convince and threatens to undo the whole film. It feels a bit disjointed with what came before but as this film plays with conventions, it still seems strangely acceptable. A poignant and odd little drama about self discovery. It will not appeal to everyone but if you open your mind and your heart, it might just surprise you.
Saskia D

Sean Penn is one of the most versatile actors there is. I loved him as the eccentric Cheyenne, who's character was definitely inspired by the legendary Ozzy Osbourne. If he isn't, he sure as hell reminded me of him. I liked the pace and how the movie withholds information or… More
Sean Penn is one of the most versatile actors there is. I loved him as the eccentric Cheyenne, who's character was definitely inspired by the legendary Ozzy Osbourne. If he isn't, he sure as hell reminded me of him. I liked the pace and how the movie withholds information or details which it reveals later on. McDormand was cute as Jane, Cheyenne's wife. She's warm and patient and at first sight an interesting match; what does she see in this man? And do we get to see what she sees? Good soundtrack.
MisterYoda ?

three stars
Carlos M

A messy movie that throws many narrative elements together without any cohesion, drifting from an odd character study to a hunt-the-nazi road-movie. It is so rambling and disjointed in its structure that it feels pointless - and it has Sean Penn in an extremely tiring performance.
Eric H

Penn is at a career worst in this pretentious English language debut by acclaimed Italian director Sorrentino. Something which irritates many Irish people, myself included, is the fact that "artists" can live here tax free. For this reason we have a disproportionate… More
Penn is at a career worst in this pretentious English language debut by acclaimed Italian director Sorrentino. Something which irritates many Irish people, myself included, is the fact that "artists" can live here tax free. For this reason we have a disproportionate number of burnt out rock stars and faded thespians living on our island whilst contributing nothing in return. Here Penn plays one such charlatan, a Gavin Friday lookalike rock star who quit twenty years ago when his lyrics influenced two young fans to commit suicide. Returning home to New York for his father's funeral, he becomes embroiled in the hunt for a Nazi war criminal. Everything about this movie irritated me. Penn is immensely annoying, speaking in a horribly mumbled voice while constantly blowing hair out of his face. Sorrentino seems to have been watching the oeuvre of Wes Anderson on repeat for the last year, every second shot features a character framed dead center staring into a slowly tracking camera. The "quirkiness" of the humour amounts to such comic lines as a rock band being named the "Pieces Of Shit". My oft repeated gripe about unoriginal use of music is given weight here, almost every musical cue will remind you of another film. This must be the twentieth film to feature Arvo Part's "Spiegel Im Spiegel" in the last ten years. The whole movie feels like a joke whose meaning only those involved in are privy to. Mixing such quirky humour with a holocaust sub-plot feels severely misguided. If there are two things Italians do well it's food and cinematography. Luca Bigazzi does incredibly good work here and I can honestly say I've never seen Dublin look so good onscreen. It's just a shame my city has to be associated with such pretentious crap.
Greg A

The only problem I have with this film is when he takes his make-up off, aside from that I like his character which I see a lot of myself in. He has gone through the stage of being a burned out rocker and has found an inner calm in his later years that makes him a real nice guy to be… More
The only problem I have with this film is when he takes his make-up off, aside from that I like his character which I see a lot of myself in. He has gone through the stage of being a burned out rocker and has found an inner calm in his later years that makes him a real nice guy to be around, trust in and also not someone who took his father's mission in life lightly after learning what his dad was all about and seeing his life's mission unfulfilled he picked up his reigns and finished his life's work.