| 90 |
Variety
Excellent documentary American Hardcore chronicles the short-lived but influential musical moment when a defiantly anti-commercial underground put a distinctive U.S. stamp on the hitherto Brit-driven punk movement.
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| 83 |
Baltimore Sun
The triumph of American Hardcore is that it convinces general audiences that there were vast underground reservoirs of angst and anguish to be tapped.
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| 80 |
Washington Post
Stands as a valuable chronicle of a brief and snarling musical movement.
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| 80 |
Village Voice
Rob Nelson
The story of American punk rock (1980–1986) isn't a lot easier to summarize than that of any other major war, but it's quite a bit funnier, as this belated documentary overview--based on Steven Blush's like-titled tome--proves in each of its 90 exuberantly irritable minutes.
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| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Messed up as it is, you can't tear your eyes away from this explosion of brutal sounds and images.
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| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Gregory Kirshling
Illuminating nostalgia, stuffed with all the right tattooed talking heads (like Black Flag's Henry Rollins), plus grim-looking concert footage of wailing skinny guys.
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| 75 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
A raucous, relevant documentary, capturing the mood of the times and the participants' best anecdotes.
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| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Hardcore remains, in the words of Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye, the voice of "kids who refuse to be slotted into generic kids roles," so fans of current groups such as Disturbed may feel shortchanged by allegations that it was all over by 1986.
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| 75 |
New York Post
A first-rate documentary on this subgenre of punk rock, which flourished roughly between 1982 and 1986 as an anarchistic response to Ronald Reagan and the disco era.
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| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Scott Martelle
The documentary is an enlightening journey to a dark corner of contemporary punk's dank little basement. It also will surprise some to hear how articulately some of the former performers explain the dark impulses that propelled them.
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| 70 |
Salon.com
Some of American Hardcore is amusing -- many of the aging punks Rachman and Blush track down have turned into highly ordinary middle-aged Americans -- and some is profoundly disturbing.
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| 70 |
The New York Times
A toned-down cinematic equivalent of the music: fast and loud, but not too loud. The movie scrambles to cover so much territory that there is room only for musical shards and slivers; few complete songs are heard, and no signature anthems stand out.
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| 70 |
Film Threat
Sally Foster
Not only documents a fascinating part of American history, but also leaves us wondering how (and if) this era's youth will manage to find a voice of their own.
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| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
American Hardcore encapsulates a largely forgotten (by the mainstream, that is) moment in maximum rock & roll history.
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| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
Hardcore might have been confused and crude, but it was never guilty of being tepid, like this film.
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| 63 |
Boston Globe
A sloppy mosh note to the genre, with its own excesses and oversights. It's like a flier for a band you've never heard of: torn, soaked with beer, itchy with aggression.
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| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
In a better work, the filmmaker would talk to hardcore punks about their parents, affairs, regrets, dreams and day jobs in an effort to explore the fledgling movement. Here, however, we get little more than a marathon MTV rap session, as Rachman drives about North America, yakking with aging punk heroes about the good ol' bad ol' days.
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| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Louis R. Carlozo
Exhaustive and at turns exhausting.
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| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Fans will dig the abundant performance video and commentary from Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye; everyone else should steer clear of the mosh pit.
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| 50 |
TV Guide
Twenty-five years on, hardcore continues to be the soundtrack of choice for extreme, white-supremacist groups hoping to tap into teenage rage. With no one on hand to counter the argument, this may go down as hardcore's lasting legacy.
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| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Will Crain
There's a lot of interesting material here, but Rachman doesn't offer any real analysis of his own, and the film suffers from a lack of narrative focus.
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