Nowhere Boy
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: October 8, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
By the end of Nowhere Boy, you'll feel you know John Lennon better than you ever did. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
It's a measure of how good a film Nowhere Boy is that it would be compelling even if it were the story of the formative years of a boy named Joe Brown. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle Smith
It's strange enough to be raised by your aunt. For young John Lennon, things get stranger still when he finds himself dating his mother. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It paints a complex picture of strained familial relations and a poignant look at the wounds inflicted on a sensitive soul by an unreliable parent. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
We learn that the emotional roller coaster of his formative years probably contributed to the complexity of his lyrics. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Nowhere Boy is too astutely written and directed to go to predictably melodramatic extremes. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The maternal triangle is pretty well handled too, giving a good sense of where Lennon came by all that exuberance and melancholy. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
There are so many ways in which Nowhere Boy, an emotionally raw and yet raucous, rockin' riff on John Lennon's turbulent teenage years, is such an entertaining piece of nostalgia. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Scott Thomas' delicate, ferocious performance captures a woman quietly at war with herself, who begins to realize that her vision of respectability may not fit the remarkable young man in her care. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 27, 2010
We get little sense of his interior life, what was going on in his head as school, girlfriends and music were competing for his attention and music was winning out. His drive is suggested, but never really felt in the performance. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Nowhere Boy is great at depicting the birth of Lennon's love for his art. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's effective but schematic storytelling. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Taylor-Wood stresses the universals rather than the specifics of John's youth. So don't go expecting a Fab Four origin story. The word Beatles is never uttered. But do go. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Johnson doesn't resemble, much less embody, Lennon, but he does catch his distinctive glint of mischief tinged with pain. Duff and Scott Thomas are both exceptional, revealing how John's relationship with these two clashing sisters marked his character. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
To watch Nowhere Boy is to appreciate anew both the anger that drove Lennon and the strength of character it took for him to overcome it. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle Orange
Although this is a film about the influential women in Lennon's life, it succeeds equally in its evocation of the family Lennon built among his boyhood mates. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
The baby-faced Thomas Sangster nearly steals the show in the much smaller role of Paul McCartney. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The script, adapted by Matt Greenhalgh from a memoir by Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird, is flagrantly Oedipal; almost every scene between John and his mother is sexually charged. The curse is taken off most of these encounters by Anne-Marie Duff's eloquent work in the mother's role. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineAmy Nicholson
Like Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There"-which never once came out and said the name "Bob Dylan"-Nowhere Boy bites its tongue and refuses to say "The Beatles." Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It's a tender, but sometimes untended, portrait of the artist as a young man-and occasionally as a young asshole-that's handsome, dutiful, and finally, a little dull. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's often flat and dull, and it can be heavy-handed with the little acorn-that-will-yield-the-famous-oak bits that so often dot biographical films about the youthful lives of famous figures. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Nowhere Boy reveals the magnitude of the good women behind the grand icon. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
As sympathetic and well-turned as it is, Nowhere Boy only gives us more mythology. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
If only the script had been content to stick with its let's-start-a-band verve. Like many a musical biopic, Nowhere Boy wants to explain away the man (as if a song like "In My Life" weren't explanation enough). Read full review
60
EmpireIan Freer
Anchored by a strong central turn, Nowhere Boy crafts entertaining, small-scale drama out of Lennon's huge-sized legend. It just lacks the spark and ambition of its subject. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Nowhere Boy is a surprisingly conventional film - adroit at weaving a time-and-place mood but way too rigid dramatically to bring the Lennon family dynamic to life. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Even with all this talent and earnestness, though, Nowhere Boy still feels indulgent, slight and almost instantly forgettable. Read full review
50
Village VoiceEric Hynes
Lacking the song's raw emotive power, Taylor-Wood's debut feature is a rote coming-of-age tableau that churns through stations of anger, inspiration, reconciliation, McCartney, and Harrison. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
It's a pleasant-enough creation story to revisit, one weighted down by melodrama and lifted up by some rocking tunes. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Strong performances by Kristin Scott Thomas as the stern Aunt Mimi, who raised the future Beatle from the age of 5, and Anne-Marie Duff as his troubled mother heighten the dramatic appeal of what otherwise is quite a dull film. Read full review
50
VarietyLeslie Felperin
A respectable but surprisingly conventional feature-debut effort from Brit artist-turned-helmer Sam Taylor-Wood. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Johnson is convincing as a swaggering, jokey Lennon, but the photos of young John, Paul and George that end the movie ultimately have more punch than this bubblegummy montage. Read full review
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