X
  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • First Run Features
  • 1 h 37 m
  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • First Run Features
  • 1 h 37 m

Summary Burlesque and vaudeville acts were America's most popular form of live entertainment in the first half of the 20th century - until cinema drove them from the mainstream. To add insult to injury, the art of burlesque became vilified and misunderstood, and was largely left out of our cultural history. By telling the intimate and surprising...

Directed By: Leslie Zemeckis

Written By: Leslie Zemeckis

  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • First Run Features
  • 1 h 37 m
  • 2010
  • Not Rated
  • First Run Features
  • 1 h 37 m

Behind the Burly Q

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
60
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Burlesque and vaudeville acts were America's most popular form of live entertainment in the first half of the 20th century - until cinema drove them from the mainstream. To add insult to injury, the art of burlesque became vilified and misunderstood, and was largely left out of our cultural history. By telling the intimate and surprising...

Directed By: Leslie Zemeckis

Written By: Leslie Zemeckis

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
60
36% Positive
4 Reviews
64% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 11 Critic Reviews
60
36% Positive
4 Reviews
64% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
75
The best commentator is Alda, whose rueful memories of being raised as a boy in burlesque are the film's highlight. "It was a form of abuse," he says of those days, but without rancor. It was, after all, the only childhood he knew.
By Peter Rainer FULL REVIEW
70
The women's outspoken commentaries prove consistently colorful and their long-ago stripteases -- feathers flying, tassels spinning -- still pack a sensual, sassy, what-the-hell punch.
By Ronnie Scheib FULL REVIEW
70
Leslie Zemeckis's slightly ramshackle but utterly entertaining Behind the Burly Q is a painstakingly researched love letter to the women and men who once made up the community of burlesque performers.
FULL REVIEW
60
A love note to '30s-era burlesque that plays best for those already invested enough in the milieu to hang on every word of aged strippers.
FULL REVIEW
60
Behind the Burly Q traces that history all the way back to the early part of the 20th century, but doesn't really come into its own until Zemeckis can interview the stars themselves rather than their children.
By Bob Mondello FULL REVIEW
50
You hear some nostalgia, but with most of them you don't get the idea that if they had the chance they'd do it all again.
By Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
40
The sauciest of anecdotes are illustrated with faded vintage photos, all tiresomely filtered through the Ken Burns roving-cam effect and making for one chaste and unsexy cultural portrait--the biggest tease of them all.
FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Mistress Inc.
Release Date Apr 23, 2010
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Tagline The Story of Burlesque in America
Website http://www.behindtheburlyq.com/
View All Details

Awards

Satellite Awards
• 1 Nomination

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