| 100 |
Entertainment Weekly
A great, searching, incendiary chronicle of the Sex Pistols, the razor-hearted visionaries of punk anarchy.
|
| 100 |
Film.com
Temple's wonderfully entertaining film brings the era back in all its confused and tentatively revolutionary glory, and bracingly demonstrates that the Pistols still have the power to shock.
|
| 90 |
Rolling Stone
A kickass documentary.
|
| 90 |
Dallas Observer
A big gob of fun.
|
| 90 |
Salon.com
Bill Wyman
A kinetic and unstoppable ride.
|
| 89 |
Austin Chronicle
Anyone who can watch this film and deny that the Sex Pistols were one of the four or five most exciting and indelibly brilliant rock groups ever is pumping formaldehyde, not blood, through his veins.
|
| 88 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Dan DeLuca
This time around, Julien Temple gets it right.
|
| 88 |
San Francisco Examiner
If nothing else, The Filth and the Fury is a searing, forceful, entertainingly biased reminder only that the English group mattered - as musicians and as anti-social curs.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
The concerts are hypnotic, the music is swell, and the entire package moves along at just the right pace.
|
| 88 |
New York Post
This bizarre, original and brilliantly crafted documentary about the Sex Pistols is funny and at times moving -- despite all the ugliness and stupidity it depicts.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
Jim Sullivan
This is a warts 'n' all portrayal - there's no dodging the feelings of both disgust and amusement.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
To see this film's footage from the '70s is to see the beginning of much of pop and fashion iconography for the next two decades.
|
| 85 |
Mr. Showbiz
There are only a handful of great music documentaries ... but Temple's film deserves a place in the canon.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
Stays with you, though, not because of its political content, but because of the unexpected emotional punch that's thrown near the end.
|
| 80 |
TNT RoughCut
Don Kaye
The electrifying jolt that they gave to a moribund music scene, and British society in particular, is still riveting to watch.
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
The filmmaker might be accused of preaching to the choir were the story not so compelling and the performances so strong.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
The Sex Pistols themselves were bloody magnificent.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Electrifying.
|
| 80 |
TV Guide
This loud and exhilarating documentary from director Julien Temple brings it all back in a vitriolic spray of spite, spittle and raw rock and roll that still hits like a heart attack.
|
| 75 |
USA Today
Irritates in the early going when many of the current-day interviews are so intentionally underlighted that we can't see what the group members look like.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Efficiently and imaginatively directed.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
An absorbing glimpse not only at the phenomenon of punk rock but also at British social history and the rock star mystique.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
It's just as voyeuristically enjoyable as those VH-1 has-been bios but without the soft-focus star shots and with far more edge, energy and originality.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
James Sullivan
Above all, it makes one thing clear: This group was wickedly funny.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
A documentary that's as chaotic, rude and funny as the band could be.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
The period ambience (call it funk) is irresistible, but the main points of interest here are sociological rather than musical.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
A film as arresting and at times as frustrating as the Pistols themselves.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
It's just twice as much as we need to know about the Sex Pistols.
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