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Backstage
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    The line separating "fan" from "fanatic" has never seemed as thin or as permeable as it does in this harrowing, and at times surprisingly humorous, case study from actress-turned-director Emmanuelle Bercot.
  2. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    88
    Under the clichéd spell of rock-and-roll promiscuity and pills popped, Seigner shows astonishing range as the detached superstar who still fixates on her ex-boyfriend and has mood swings like a manic-depressive on fast-forward.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    Director Emmanuelle Bercot's film offers a fascinating account of how a vulnerable star might mistake fan worship for something real.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    75
    There's a pleasing tension in the air as their relationship comes to seem like something of a contest: With two women this needy, who will out-crazy the other?
  5. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    60
    An enjoyably overwrought meditation on the consequences of celebrity and the vicissitudes of fandom, Backstage stars Le Besco as the schoolgirl acolyte of Emmanuelle Seigner's pop diva, a singer-songwriter and high priestess of cheese.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    60
    With its booming soundtrack of songs -- written by Laurent Marimbert and sung by Seigner herself -- and good chemistry between Le Besco and Seigner, pic at times has an operatic emotional intensity that will turn off some viewers but provide a guilty pleasure for others.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    50
    The results aren't gothic and bloody, as they were in the Lauren Bacall film "The Fan," or elegant and ironic as in the Bette Davis classic "All About Eve"--though the plot suggests a bit of both.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    50
    As a take on celebrity as religious mass derangement, Backstage is nominally interesting. As a study of two characters, it's not very convincing.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    As long as it focuses on its feverishly needy central characters, neither of whom you would ever want to have as a friend, it remains true to itself.
  10. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    The limiting factor, despite serious performances by the two leads, is that neither character is entirely believable.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    42
    Bercot moves the characters up and down like lines on a chart, never granting full access to what any of them are thinking. And access is what Backstage promised.
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User Score
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No user score yet- Awaiting 2 more ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. ChadS.
    8
    The opening scene of "Backstage" takes its cue from the final scene in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous", when the rock star makes a house call to a fan, and updates the crazy, single-minded intensity we see flickering across the happily anguished faces of the original Beatle fans as their heroes rocked the Ed Sullivan theater so many years ago. Lucie(Islid Le Besco) loves the singer-songwriter Lauren Waks(Emmanuelle Seigner) a little too deeply. How do we know? "Backstage" also evokes Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" later in the narrative, as it dawns on the viewer that this film is a commentary on reality television, when the groupie's interactions with the singer and her close associates becomes increasingly unfilmable.… Full Review »
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