Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): March 1, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubCraig D. LindseyFeb 24, 2021
Without a doubt, Wallace was more comfortable with his boys, and Biggie serves as an origin story on how his rise to hip-hop stardom took not just him but also his people out of the projects. Read full review
80
The GuardianEllen E JonesMar 1, 2021
These mid-90s, north-west Brooklyn specificities are fascinating and relevant; to Biggie’s art, certainly, but possibly also to his death. Read full review
75
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 25, 2021
Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell celebrates an influential musical legacy as well as a complicated life story, with a potent mix of sentiment and aesthetic appreciation. Read full review
70
VarietyChris WillmanMar 22, 2021
Fortunately, “I Got a Story to Tell” bears a life force that looms even larger than Wallace’s — that of his Jamaican-born “moms,” Voletta, who has so much star presence that even Angela Bassett couldn’t quite do justice to it when she played her in the 2009 movie. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneJeff IhazaMar 3, 2021
We have plenty of information about the idea of the Notorious B.I.G., but Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell offers a rare look at the actual human being behind the legend. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJon CaramanicaMar 2, 2021
Maybe half of the film is about his music career, and of that, not much at all is devoted to his commercial prime. This makes the film anti-mythological, but also far more robust. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Craig JenkinsMar 2, 2021
I Got a Story to Tell is essential viewing, provided that you’re the kind of person who can rap the first verse of “Hypnotize” from memory. You come away wishing B.I.G. could’ve dreamed bigger. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergMar 1, 2021
There's enough good, previously unseen stuff in Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell to make it an easy recommendation, though seeing and hearing stuff you haven't seen before isn't the same as learning a lot of things you didn't know before. It's captivating because Biggie was captivating, without being enlightening. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMar 1, 2021
Anyone expecting “Biggie” to be some version of “Unsolved Mysteries” will be disappointed. But it’s unquestionably an affectionate, entertaining and even enlightening portrait. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMar 1, 2021
This movie is less about the myth of Biggie than it is about the everyday experiences of a man described by his friends as much funnier and more big-hearted than his public image sometimes suggested. Despite the title, “I Got a Story to Tell” is primarily concerned with all the tales that went untold. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 2, 2021
The most fascinating material here is hearing his mother’s ambitions — a desire to come to America and “get rich — and Smalls’ myriad musical influences, not just his pals and peers but those father figure mentors who entered his life. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 1, 2021
The documentary's best material, other than the archival stuff, comes in how it flirts with an analysis of Wallace’s musical inspirations like his Jamaican background and what he took from a jazz musician who lived down the street. Sadly, there’s too little of that, and too many rhymes that we’ve heard before. Read full review
50
SlateJack HamiltonMar 1, 2021
If you’re a Biggie die-hard (I’m one), nothing in I Got a Story to Tell will trouble your conviction that everything you already thought you knew about Biggie Smalls is right. In other words, it’s fan service, a project that sees “what is this movie for” and “who is this movie for” as effectively the same question. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleChris VognarFeb 26, 2021
The new documentary, Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell was made in the spirit of the earlier work and the younger man, the hungry hustler hanging out on Brooklyn street corners with his friends. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 24, 2021
The greatest value to Emmett Malloy’s broadly unenlightening Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, a new documentary laced with intimate and never-before-seen camcorder footage shot by Damien “D-Roc” Butler, is how bluntly it reaffirms that Wallace was real, even if he always seemed larger than life. Read full review
35
PolygonJoshua RiveraMar 1, 2021
I Got a Story to Tell is a movie without a clear audience. It’s too thin for fans who’ve heard every beat of this story told over and over again, and too narrow to be a good introduction to anyone who’s less familiar with Biggie’s work and his role in New York City hip-hop history. Read full review
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