Bukowski: Born into This
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: May 28, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatEric Campos
Bukowski is one of my all time favorite writers and now I have an all new respect for the man thanks to John Dullaghan’s phenomenal film. I’ll be breaking out “Post Office,” “Ham On Rye,” and “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” again very soon. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It reveals Bukowski to be a far grander artist than his bum's armor would suggest. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Often-brilliant, often-reverent documentary deconstructs Bukowski's bad-boy literary persona, finds a fascinatingly messed-up guy behind the words. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
Charles Bukowski, the bard of post-war L.A.'s working-class underbelly, was no ordinary cult writer, and John Dullaghan's thorough, compelling doc Bukowski: Born Into This does a credible job of showing why. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A portrait of a sometimes surly, often foulmouthed, always brilliant artist that is at once humane, horrific, hilarious and deeply moving. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
About as good a picture of a writer's real life as we are likely to get. It is wide-ranging, it is fair, it is thorough, and although it admires, it is also tough enough to condemn. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The bulk, the heft, and the girth of Bukowski: Born Into This arrives in the form of the author himself, giving beery readings to Berkeley audiences clearly enjoying a contact high or sitting, ill-kempt but quiet, pensive, Heineken in one yellowy paw, in his apartment. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Wants to claim Bukowski (1920-1994) as a 20th-century West Coast Walt Whitman -- a people's poet of modern degradation. Through a selective presentation of his writing and a reverently crass treatment of his life, it makes a funny, often intensely moving case, and you're having such a good time that you're glad to let it. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
How much was legend, how much was pose, how much was real? I think it was all real, and the documentary suggests as much. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis Harvey
Makes a compelling case for raising him (Bukowski) from cult status to the top rank of 20th century U.S. literary figures -- while providing ample evidence of a very colorful life and times. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Definitive and engrossing documentary. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This documentary profile of poet and novelist Charles Bukowski exploits the writer's counterculture persona but also works to dispel it, revealing a gifted and extremely complicated man. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
A remarkable movie, because, like "Crumb" or even "American Splendor," it adores the very people most of us might ignore if they passed us on the street. It's a love letter to someone who desperately needs one, even 10 years after his death. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
It's the portrait of an artist who had neither time nor respect for literary niceties -- he was, in the words of publisher John Martin, a "man of the street writing for the man of the street." Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Excerpts from Schroeder's long video documentary about him, and from the flawed melodrama "Barfly" they made together, add more variety. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The dirty old man who became a cult poet and author was a true original, and every minute he's on screen, whether it's reading from his brutally honest work or musing on a hard-lived life for the cameras, it's hard to look away. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
He's not someone you may wish you'd known, but he's a fascinating street character. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Raw and defining documentary about the man--and the myth. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunStephen Kiehl
Some of the most affecting moments in the film show Bukowski walking the streets of his Los Angeles, a barren suburban hell, as he reads his poems and the words appear on and then fade from the screen. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Accomplishes beautifully what it sets out to do, which is to reveal the man behind the crusty, hard-drinking, tough-talking persona Charles Bukowski so artfully crafted. Read full review
63
PremiereAaron Hillis
Dullaghan's film is a bit too straightforward and introductory to be declared a definitive portraiture. The gold nuggets worth sifting for lie in the anecdotal minutiae. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
By turns profane, vulgar, unpredictable, scabrous and perpetually somewhere between buzzed and three sheets to the wind, Bukowski opened a window onto a fringe world of blue-collar drudgery and alcoholic self-obliteration with his blistering, bleakly comic dispatches from the gutter. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Goes to great lengths to show the man-child behind the barfly, but in its rush to deify its subject, it lacks critical voices and context. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
Despite the fact there's no lack of raw material, Bukowski fails to place its subject's actions and statements in any psychological or literary context. It's simply a celebration of Bukowski's misogyny and self-abuse. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
As factoids do-si-do with testimonials from the likes of drinking buddy Sean Penn and fan-boy Bono, the movie all but becomes the very A&E Hagiography for which Bukowski would have had little or no patience. Read full review
More From This Movie

77 Critic Reviews

7.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL