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Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
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  1. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    100
    The most powerful documentary I've seen all year, and one of the two or three best films ever made about an artist or musician.
  2. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    That rarest of movie biographies: a warts-and-all exploration of the life and times of its subject.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    90
    The film is much more than a biography of the Clash's guitarist and lead singer: It's history, criticism, philosophy and politics, played fast and loud.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    90
    By focusing on Strummer and giving a fair amount of screen time to his years in the wilderness before and after the Clash, Temple arrives at a more poignant and mature statement of what this committed band was all about.
  5. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Dan DeLuca
    88
    Julian Temple, the British music-documentary director who helmed the 2000 Pistols' flick "The Filth and the Fury," has done such cinematic justice to the punk humanist born John Graham Mellor, who died of a congenital heart defect in 2002.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    The triumph of this fond, uncontainable documentary is that it lets you hear that voice again loud and clear.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    Captures the Joe Strummer who, in the late 1970s, just about firebombed the rock establishment with his fury.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    83
    Temple introduces viewers to Strummer the punster, Strummer the womanizer, and Strummer the poseur, whom his mates could only really talk to when no one else was around.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    The film is a rigorously thorough biography and an impassioned accolade. Temple spends as much time on Strummer's life before and after the Clash as he does charting the band's powerful musical and political influence.
  10. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    One artist's moving tribute to another.
  11. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    Like an early Clash number, it's by turns lovely and ugly, loud as bombs and quiet as a revolution's first-thrown stone; it acknowledges the legend while uncovering the truth.
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Greg Kot
    75
    Its moving narrative requires little in the way of embellishment, but Temple's documentary sometimes becomes too clever for its own good.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    The movie fascinates not so much because of Strummer, whose brooding temperament and flash-and-burn career arc seems pretty routine by rock standards, but because of the way Temple organized and edited the film.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Compelling viewing, even for people who don't care a bit for the punk scene.
  15. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Joel Selvin
    75
    One of the most direct and personal music documentaries ever made.
  16. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    75
    At its best, it throbs with immediacy, just as Strummer did.
  17. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jim Ridley
    70
    Temple's engrossing portrait of the Clash's late frontman uses endlessly suggestive montage to show how he kept punk's precepts alive, even after he left the music and eventually the earth itself.
  18. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    60
    At least the movie never bogs down. But you only get a taste of what made the Clash for a brief period the most exciting band on that side of the Atlantic.
  19. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    50
    Thirty years down the line, not everyone looks as they once did, so even fans will have trouble putting names to aged faces. Newcomers, meanwhile, will feel hopelessly shut out.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. AndrewF.
    4
    I'm surprised to see the positive reviews. I felt the film was a sprawling mess that didn't engage. By the end, I was tired of all the nameless faces, poor sound mixing, and the endless montage. My friend who adores Strummer felt he didn't learn anything that any fan would already know. Myself, who knows nothing of Strummer, felt drowned in a sea of confusion. We both felt bored.… Full Review »
  2. NikkiIkki
    10
    Wonderful! Just Wonderful!
  3. keithB.
    6
    I had high expectations from the maker of the Filth and the Fury, a real masterpiece. Julien Temple follows up with another excellent doc but at one point I started to think something's not quite right. Ok, the campfire testimonials was pretty bad. But more than that it was the relentlessness of the pacing that didn't work: kind of like watching a train go by, the cars one after another after another. Sorry Julien, I nodded off at one point.… Full Review »
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