Baadasssss!
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 28, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What's fascinating is the way Mario, working from his father's autobiography and his own memories, has somehow used his first-hand experience without being cornered by it. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Baadasssss is about feeling pain and frustration, about having a sense of purpose that overwhelms everything else, about great cost and great risk, the pain of isolation and the intoxicating effect of fighting against the odds. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The beauty of Baadasssss! is the way Mario Van Peebles salutes his father's truth by coaxing it into legend. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Among the many things that Baadasssss! is, it is also a movie about moviemaking. In fact, the film should be a primer for anyone about to make an independent film. Read full review
88
PremiereAaron Hillis
The mood never droops, however, saved by Mario’s well-studied ability to channel his father, a performance as delicately nuanced and polished as the film is frenetic and raw. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A much better movie than the one it honors. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Overall, Baadasssss! succeeds marvelously at evoking the passion and frantic energy behind "Sweetback" and putting it all in the context of its politically charged era. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The technical side of Baadasssss! far surpasses that of "Sweetback," and re-created scenes from the 1971 film look much better in the son's hands than they did in the father's. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Compelling both as a chronicle of guerrilla filmmaking and as a son's movie about his father, it presents a clear-eyed, warts-and-all view of artistic obsession. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Mario Van Peebles creates what can only be called a lucid fantasia; the movie quickly reaches a pitch of manic activity and stays there. It’s an exhausting, and exhaustingly pleasurable, entertainment. [31 May 2004, p. 88]
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
A vibrant, funny, fully realized slice of oft-overlooked cultural, show-business, and black history. It's better than the film whose genesis it chronicles, though inherently doomed to be nowhere near as important. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Accurate enough as history to provide a potent reminder that black independent cinema did not end with Oscar Micheaux or begin with Spike Lee. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Does a terrific job of capturing the outlaw energy of the original production. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film is technically raw, but the sight of Van Peebles playing his father at a defining moment in movie history exerts a potent fascination. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This colorful time capsule of a movie was directed by Van Peebles's son, who appeared in "Sweetback" as a child and doesn't minimize the difficulties his father's underfinanced dream entailed for his hard-pressed family and friends. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
This movie is more wistful and winking, though it's obvious Mario is still working out emotional baggage with his tyrannically driven old man. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Both public tribute and private therapy session, Baadasssss! should have been a self-conscious disaster. By confronting his past with wit and style, Van Peebles has instead created a meta-cool history lesson and homage. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The most exhilarating film about indie moviemaking on a shoestring since "Ed Wood," even if its subject -- the director's dad, ultra-macho filmmaking pioneer Melvin Van Peebles -- couldn't be more different than the notoriously inept Wood. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Baadasssss! is the portrait of a visionary with a blind spot, a man starved for kindness who can no longer recognize the responsibility to be kind, even to his kids. But it's a portrait of a visionary nonetheless. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Sobering and wildly entertaining. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Mario Van Peebles, bearing an uncanny resemblance to his father, illuminates the soul of a man driven by a belief in himself and a love for his community. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Both an homage to his dad and a backstage story rich in Hollywood lore. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMarilyn Moss
One of the best looks at a period in American film to be seen in a long, long while. BaadAsssss Cinema has meat on its bones and analysis in its soul. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
The genuinely fascinating story is one of revolutionary intention and unrelenting grit, but while Mario is a competent enough filmmaker, he has neither the urgency nor, frankly, the chops to make his own movie fire up. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
In its spirit and execution, Baadasssss! lives up to its forebear. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDave Kehr
Mario Van Peebles, of course, inhabits a very different world from that of his father: a world that his father, in some small way, helped to create. It is his awareness of this paradox, of the progressive import of his father's film and of the repressive import of his father's personality, that informs this modest but interesting work. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
As frantic and frenzied as its source material. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Its mix of personal reminiscence (Mario made his screen debut playing Sweetback as a boy) and cultural history is fascinating. This engages in a fair amount of mythmaking itself, but its lesson in self-empowerment is both vivid and sincere. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Baadasssss! is best taken as an examination of filmmaking itself. Read full review
60
Film ThreatStaff (Not credited)
A heartfelt and incredibly resonant ode to his father's achievement, Mario's film relives the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the making of Melvin's pioneering effort. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie is at its best when it's most straightforward. Flights of fancy like the child angel perched on Melvin's ceiling or his conversations with the black-clad Sweetback, who appears to undermine his confidence at crucial junctures, seem forced and pointless. Read full review
40
EmpirePatrick Peters
This plays very much like a standard biopic, lacking the dangerous spirit of the movie that inspired it. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
While the younger Van Peebles certainly looks the part, Baadasssss! never feels like anything more than kids playing dress-up. Read full review
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