I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A superb portrait of a band and an industry in flux.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In the last two decades rock documentaries have become ubiquitous on TV but marginalized as cinema; this is the rare exception that earns its place on the big screen.

Philadelphia Inquirer Dan DeLuca

Tells Wilco's story so well that you'll leave the theater thinking the album is a work of genius.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This picture is jagged and exciting; it tells several plots imperfectly, yet makes them add up to a great American story about integrity challenged and triumphant.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

It testifies to art's vitality and endurance, despite its marketers' -- and sometimes even its makers' -- efforts to the contrary.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

A photographer for magazines like Vanity Fair and GQ, as well as a veteran director of commercials, Mr. Jones brings a trained eye to this, his first documentary. The low gray skies of Chicago prove once again to be a boon to photography, and the city has seldom looked better than it does here, in its chilly, minimalist beauty.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

An exciting and involving rock music doc, a smart and satisfying look inside that tumultuous world.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Much to cheer here, from its treasure trove of early and alternate versions of songs to the triumphant finale.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A modest vérité portrait of Wilco, the engagingly melodious, deeply unglam alt-folk rockers.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

This is a rare gem tripped over while making a run-of-the-mill rockumentary about a band's new album.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The film perpetuates a self-congratulatory vision of the record's worth, when an opposing point of view would have provided a more balanced perspective.

Washington Post Richard Harrington

The unexpected drama captured puts I Am Trying to Break Your Heart in the good company, if not quite the league, of "Let It Be" and "Gimme Shelter."

TV Guide Staff (Not credited)

Shot in grainy black and white, the film features tons of entertaining footage of the band in the studio as well as an enlightening commentary from music critics Greg Kot and David Frick.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

In 30 years’ time it might seem as incisive a document of its time as, say, “Don’t Look Back” or “Gimme Shelter.” As a study of how the current corporate idiocy impacts one man’s art, it’s priceless.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

The concert footage is stirring, the recording sessions are intriguing, and -- on the way to striking a blow for artistic integrity -- this quality band may pick up new admirers.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

May be anticorporate, it's by no means hype-free.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

This is compelling stuff, but Jones seems almost pathologically averse to upstaging the songs themselves.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

To love Wilco is to believe in a certain rustic intelligence about popular music (and about yourself) and to embrace the Tweedy worldview that you need sarcasm and vagueness to cope with the pitfalls of sincerity.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

what we've got here is a little propaganda film. A mild one, certainly, but the cliché of DIY hopefuls (band) versus the Big Machine (music industry) foments the same tedious struggle of art versus commerce.

San Francisco Chronicle James Sullivan

Business intrudes on art.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

A slightly dull film by photographer Sam Jones.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Jones's documentary, named for the opening song on Foxtrot, is most effective as a poison-pen missive to Corporate Rock.

LA Weekly John Patterson

As Tweedy talks about canning his stockbroker and repairing his pool, you yearn for a few airborne TV sets or nude groupies on the nod to liven things up. And what do we get? Diet Coke! Tonight is definitely not the night.

Variety Robert Koehler

May leave itself open to charges of being little more than a promo feature posing as a documentary, but pic nevertheless is a warts-and-all look at a group of musicians -- and the music biz -- likely to make most record label flacks flinch.