Beefcake

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Tries to have it both ways -- as a kitschy ode to bodybuilding culture and as a tragic story of a man who was persecuted for his dreams.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Fanciful and highly entertaining docudrama.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

There's an undeniable energy, originality and -- most hearteningly -- optimism here that makes Beefcake well worth your time, shortcomings and all.

Boston Globe Jim Sullivan

It leaves you with an odd, sweet-and-sour taste - nostalgia painted in pastel colors, streaked with black smears.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Much to enjoy in this potpourri of silly fun and forbidden games, but a bit less ambition and a tad more focus might have helped.

Village Voice Vince Aletti

Beefcake's messiness has real charm, and its tribute to Mizer is both appropriately complicated and poignantly sexy.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A fascinating double-edged portrait of 1950s Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An illuminating and engrossing look at the life and times of pioneer Los Angeles physique photographer Bob Mizer

Variety Dennis Harvey

As a mix of nonfiction and wafer-thin drama, however, it's a genial mess in which both elements emerge undercooked

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

A heady, impressionistic mixture of biography, fantasy and social history in which it isn't always clear which is which.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Like the melancholy remininces of an old relative who lived through an exciting, even harrowing time, but no longer possesses the mental faculties to really flesh out the tale they're spinning.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This movie's attempt to reinvent Mizer as a First Amendment hero isn't as effective as its triumphant display of beefcake, which is, after all, the movie's raison d'etre.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Ultimately this is a sharp-focus issue movie, decrying intolerance as it explores the effects of labeling, the complexity of fetishizing, and the differences between business and crime.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A campy docu-drama about the secretly gay world of 1950's muscle magazines.

LA Weekly Chuck Stephens

Dull, tacky docudrama