Jimi: All Is by My Side
Open Road Films | Release Date: September 26, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 25, 2014
Liberated from playing the hits, Benjamin eloquently captures Hendrix’s emerging style without having to succumb to jukebox-musical opportunism. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 1, 2014
An evocative, probing, enlightening, and impressionistic look at the lesser-known period of Hendrix’s life: the pivotal time from 1966-67 during which the musician discovered his style and voice. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySep 24, 2014
The film's lack of such signature Hendrix tunes as ''Purple Haze'' may put off some — the filmmakers couldn't get the rights — but I'd argue that this obstacle forced Ridley to zig where most biopics zag. Which, when you think about it, is fitting for the story of a lefty who played his guitar upside down. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 26, 2014
With Jimi: All Is By My Side, writer-director John Ridley tries to do for the rock biopic what Jimi Hendrix did for rock 'n' roll itself in the 1960s — explode it, redefine it, and help it find its best self. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 25, 2014
The damn thing is, Ridley very nearly makes this insuperable obstacle work to his benefit. He delivers a flawed, ambitious and deeply peculiar portrait of one of the 20th century’s most enigmatic musical talents, in the year before he ascended to rock-god status, that resembles no other pop-music biopic you’ve ever seen. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 25, 2014
The key reason "Jimi" doesn't need the signature music is the extraordinary performance of actor-musician André Benjamin. Read full review
80
The GuardianHenry BarnesMay 30, 2014
The result is an unpredictable film, a difficult approximation of a biopic. But it delivers a Jimi Hendrix experience somehow the richer for sidelining the man and subverting his music. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 30, 2014
What moviegoers do get is a film both thoughtful and convincing, sympathetic but not flattering to a man who had just three years after this period's end to make himself immortal. Read full review
76
Film.comJames RocchiSep 23, 2014
A closer, richer examination of a slice of time as specific as it is short. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 26, 2014
That's something else Ridley and his actors do: make you appreciate what a life it was - impossibly short, impossibly brilliant. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 26, 2014
What’s fascinating about Jimi: All Is By My Side is not only its decision to show us this particular chapter in Hendrix’s life, but also the way it teases out the shadings in a famous figure we only think we know so well. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 25, 2014
The movie has a tossed-off, caught-on-the-fly exuberance that works like a charm. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 25, 2014
Mr. Ridley’s ambitions and refusal to treat Hendrix as a solvable mystery are welcome, given how often biopics re-embalm their subjects. Here, a legend is born, and a man too. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 25, 2014
Sure, the hits would have been nice. But it says something about Jimi: All Is by My Side (and Benjamin's performance) that it is still a success without them. Read full review
70
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 23, 2014
Unsatisfying on a musical level, it’s nonetheless a well-acted, sporadically impressive piece of filmmaking. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 27, 2014
At times Jimi: All Is By My Side feels pure authentic. More often, though, it’s meandering and melodramatic, with far too many scenes of Hendrix jabbering and squabbling with two key female figures in his life, and not enough of the music. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSep 24, 2014
Opting for scenes that tend to be fragmented, flawed snippets from a much bigger story, the film exudes a bizarre confidence in not trying to encapsulate the singer's whole life in 120 minutes. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 23, 2014
Maybe Jimi: All is By My Side is as good a Jimi Hendrix bio-pic as we’ll ever get, at least so long as there are legal entanglements strangling the late guitar god’s legacy. Read full review
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