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Shine a Light
Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    May be the most intimate documentary ever made about a live rock 'n' roll concert. Certainly it has the best coverage of the performances onstage.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Joel Selvin
    100
    An exhilarating documentary.
  3. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    An altogether astounding testimony to the band's longevity, vitality and verve.
  4. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    91
    An exhilarating musical experience.
  5. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    91
    Shine a Light has two maestros, Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, and once they begin to mesh, around the third or fourth song, they put on a display of showmanship that erases the line between art and entertainment.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    Shine a Light may not be the last Rolling Stones movie, but it's likely to be the last one with a touch of the poet about it.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    90
    As the director of the documentary Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese is a besotted rock 'n' roll fan who wholeheartedly embraces its mythology.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Raoul Hernandez
    89
    Dedicated to Atlantic Records fountainhead Ahmet Ertegun, whose complications from injuries sustained in a tumble backstage at the Beacon resulted in his death, let the record show that a lifetime of musical innovation concluded with dying not at but FROM a Rolling Stones concert.
  9. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    This you-are-there spellbinder is a master director shining his light on the best rock band on the planet.
  10. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    88
    Shine a Light is one of those lions-in-winter affairs, and Jagger, who has a body fat count of negative 67, can still dance like a maniacal popinjay, and Richards still looks like a satyr who has stayed up all night every night of his adult life.
  11. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    88
    Shine a Light provides the clearest and most intimate viewing experience of the band to date. It is also a happy circumstance that the group, now in their mid-60s, have rarely sounded tighter.
  12. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Elysa Gardner
    88
    The genius of Scorsese's film, which is being shown in IMAX in 93 theaters, is that it reveals the Stones' mortality while celebrating all that makes them more than mere mortals.
  13. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    Shine a Light did something I didn't think was possible. It got me caring about the Rolling Stones again.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    In Shine a Light, a crackling concert movie directed by Martin Scorsese, the Rolling Stones are now so old that they seem new again.
  15. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    83
    Shine A Light pays tribute to the band's essential agelessness.
  16. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    Shine A Light is essentially just an expertly made concert film. But what a concert! (And what a camera team.)
  17. Empire
    Reviewed by: Will Lawrence
    80
    A triumph for Scorsese and a document for the band, Shine A Light is a five-star experience for Stones fans. For those less enamoured with the ageing rockers, it goes a long way to explaining their longevity.
  18. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    80
    This movie is about giving us a privileged glimpse of the Stones in action. It's a record of an astonishing musical chemistry that has been evolving, with no signs of calcification, for nearly five decades. As a bonus, there are delicious guest appearances by Buddy Guy and Jack White.
  19. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    80
    Shine a Light isn't the record of a unique event, so it's not on the exalted level of "The Last Waltz." But it has its own fascination. The film is less about the music than about the dedication of show-biz troupers--about doing your job, year after year, as if it's your joy.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    Vibrant and engaging documentary.
  21. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    75
    Jagger is often shot straight-on, veiny arms outstretched, white-hot lights illuminating his skinny form (and, um, bared belly). Suddenly, Scorsese turns what seemed familiar into genuinely iconic. From then on, the movie is on fire.
  22. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    75
    Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones "documentary" (i.e. concert film) is a first: the only Scorsese film that does not feature the Stones' "Gimme Shelter." Really. I think the Dalai Lama even hummed the guitar solo in "Kundun."
  23. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    Scorsese's canny use of archival footage makes it more than a mere concert film.
  24. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    75
    It's kind of amusing to see slinky Christina Aguilera sing the "Live With Me" line about a score of harebrained children, as she clearly hasn't got the faintest idea of what that means.
  25. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    75
    Ultimately, Shine a Light is illuminating indeed, even fascinating, but not in the way Scorsese intended. What he has created, inadvertently, is an invaluable documentation of semi-fossilized Stones – musicologists may like it, sociologists should love it and, some distant day, anthropologists will treasure it.
  26. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    My favorite rock-concert movies, Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense" and "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," are organic: They chart a miraculous path from sound to soul. Scorsese stays on the outside, as befits his temperament and his subject. Yet there is, amid the whirligig spectacle, a spark of connection.
  27. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    70
    To call Shine a Light a documentary doesn't quite nail it; it's more of a macro-mentary, shot in such tight close-up that you can see the fillings in Mick's teeth and the sweat stains in the armpits of his sequined magenta top.
  28. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    Martin Scorsese's energetic account of a Stones concert at Gotham's Beacon Theater in fall 2006 takes full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of aging and the passage of time.
  29. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joanne Kaufman
    70
    Feast for Rolling Stones fans.
  30. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    Despite Scorsese's efforts to pump up some drama - the director, with his signature glasses and Groucho brows, gets huffy about not receiving a set list - drama is sorely lacking. This is just a concert film.
  31. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Camille Dodero
    60
    Shine a Light's only point seems to be: You try this at 60. One would hope that, after "The Last Waltz" and "No Direction Home," Scorsese might venture beyond making a glossy episode of "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Nope, and we're not supposed to question it: Like the Stones, Marty's earned the right to coast, especially in his senior years.
  32. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    60
    At times, the cutting shifts from the hasty to the impatient to the borderline epileptic, and, while never doubting Scorsese's ardor for the Stones, I got the distinct impression of a style in search of a subject.
  33. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    The film does not stand up to the current crop of music/concert films like "U2 3D," which brilliantly uses 3-D to show the Irish band in concert so as to encapsulate its relationship to its fans, each other and their own music, and "CSNY: Deja Vu," which hones in on the political connection Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have to their music.
  34. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    Outdated before it opened today.
  35. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    It's a late-night infomercial masquerading as a concert movie, more an advertisement for vitality than a picture of vitality itself. There's something self-congratulatory, preening, about both the performance and the filmmaking.
  36. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Naturally, age and infirmity are a major subtext of Shine a Light (and, really, any movie featuring Keith Richards). No matter how cadaverous the Stones appear, they keep climbing onstage, and I'll miss them when they're finally gone.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 4 out of 18
  1. BrianD.
    4
    What a boring and sterile concert! Clean cut millionaires masquerading as rebel renegades. The sound was crystal clear and the photography�39;s brilliant, but far too polished. Best part was "Champagne and Reefer".… Full Review »
  2. Andio
    7
    I saw the Rolling Stones live last year for the first time and I was blown away. I've been a Stones fan for decades but have never had any interest in stadium rock concerts with their huge crowds and tiny stars on stage. The few stadium shows I've attended were always mediocre experiences. But the Stones' Bigger Bang tour changed my mind. For one, the enormous video screens make every seat great. Beyond that, it was the Rolling Stones that won me over. Rocking songs, incredible performances, unbelievable energy, and every one in the crowd dancing and singing the whole show. And these guys are in their sixties! Watching 'Shine a Light' on IMAX at times made me feel like I was actually at a live Stones concert, but then I kept feeling that something key was missing. And it was. Martin Scorsese covered the two explosive shows at the Beacon Theater in New York with 18 cameras but he somehow missed getting the band. As expected, lead singer and ringmaster, Mick Jagger, gets the most screen time, with guitarist, Keith Richards, coming in a not too distant second. And then there's Ron Wood, the second guitarist, and some might argue, the better soloist, He has juicy moments on screen, but is shockingly absent time and again when soloing, the camera instead lingering on a prancing Jagger or posing Richards. And where is drummer Charlie Watts? Watching 'Shine a Light' one might think the Stones had backing tracks instead of a live drummer. Watts is the quiet one (who doesn't dye his hair) but he's the backbone of their sound, keeping time, holding it down while the boys jump around. I kept wanting to see shots of Watts, not only for the variety of imagery and the visual reinforcement that there really is a live drummer hitting the cowbell on 'Honky Tonk Women,' but also because he's an original Rolling Stone. Sadly, there are only a handful of very brief clips featuring Watts, and just as few wide shots of the whole band on stage. And Watts is not the only one nearly absent from the movie. Although the original members are Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood (Wood joined in 1974 so he's not actually an original Stone), they tour with a number of key support musicians, including bass player, Daryl Jones (who's worked with them since 1994), a keyboardist, a horn section and three back-up singers. However, except for some brief interplay between Jagger and the back-up singers, the other musicians are absent from the film. It's not so unusual to relegate non-member, support players to minor roles in concert movies, but to avoid them altogether is baffling and frustrating. The support musicians may not be Rolling Stones but they are a part of the band. They are playing the music and adding to the sights and sounds on stage. But 'Shine a Light' mostly kept them in the dark. This isn't how a real concert is experienced. In concert the other players are seen and often featured in the spotlight as soloists. But time and again in 'Shine a Light', we hear a piano riff, a sax solo, a horn section blast, a bass run, but we never actually see who's playing. We neither get full nor medium shots, nor even close-ups of hands playing. We don't even get quick cuts of the support players, as one might see interspersed regularly throughout most filmed live concerts today. Instead, we see lingering shots of Jagger and Richards, sometimes so close you can see the brown behind Jagger's teeth, while a saxophone or some other player wails somewhere off-camera. The Stones sound is some much more than guitar, bass, drums and vocals. A concert is so much more than the starring players, but you don't get that from this film. It's as if the film makers had tin ears. This is baffling because they had 18-camera shooting the action. So the film makers either didn't get the coverage, or they decided in the editing room not to include the other players. Bad decision. This gives the movie, the Stones concert experience, a frustrating myopic feel. I kept wanting to see what I was hearing, but couldn't. I kept wanting to get a visual of the focal point in the song and on stage, but it was not delivered. Even one of the few times Jaggar plays harmonica is off-camera. This left me feeling short-changed. Ultimately, 'Shine a Light' is slightly claustrophobic, with all its medium and close shots. It rarely opens up to show the entire band on stage. The film suffers as a result, as wide shots would have provided much needed breathing room, offering a more open perspective, and also providing the myriad tight shots with context. We do see the interplay between Jagger and Richards, or between Richards and Wood, but we don't see the whole band working together as a unit. And ultimately that's what a live Stones show, or any live rock show is all about--a group of individuals performing together as a band. Even if Scorsese decided that the film was all about the four Stones, he could have easily divided the enormous screen into quads, now and again, so we could see the four Stones working their magic simultaneously in a multi-screen format. This is common place today and highly effective. It's baffling that with all the resources at hand and experience behind him, Scorsese didn't quite deliver the goods. It's as if his infatuation with the visages of Jagger and Richards blinded him from showing us the Rolling Stones. 'Shine a Light' is enjoyable for sure, but suffers from a limited vision.… Full Review »
  3. KevinH.
    6
    The editing is too frenetic and too cute, and kow-tows to Mick and Keith at the expense of the audience, robbing us of a master's portrait of the full breadth of the musical construction going on with this fantastic band. Real fans want to see a lot of Charlie and Ronnie, see a taste of Darryl Jones on key bass lines, see Chuck Lavell's super sturdy keyboard work and see the singers and the horn section here and there. The movie was edited like it was for Inside Hollywood - stars only. A sadly wasted opportunity. With The Last Waltz as the bar, this movie fell way short. Instead, it earns the title of the best Stones movie ever, but nowhere close to being a great movie.… Full Review »
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