Pearl Jam Twenty
Abramorama | Release Date: September 20, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 22, 2011
A must-see for Pearl Jam fans - and for folks keen on gleaning insights into the pressures that come with megastardom. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Guy DixonSep 22, 2011
Even those more neutral about Pearl Jam will find it impossible not to enjoy director Cameron Crowe's driving retrospective of the band's stage-diving 20 years, at least on some level. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurraySep 21, 2011
What makes Pearl Jam Twenty a little better than the average fan-friendly documentary is that Crowe focuses on the more significant parts of the Pearl Jam story: not how the group wrote "Alive," but how it's struggled with maintaining artistic credibility while selling millions. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensSep 24, 2011
This is a lovingly assembled tribute to the career of a working band that's still very much, to quote the title of its most iconic hit, "Alive." Read full review
70
The New York TimesAndy WebsterSep 22, 2011
Before viewers learn this venerable ensemble's story, much less see its members rock out on screen, they are subjected to Mr. Crowe's voice-over account of his own early discovery of the Seattle scene. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSep 17, 2011
Cameron Crowe's feature documentary is among his most effective and deeply felt work. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithSep 23, 2011
It's a shame that, after nearly 40 years of writing about rock, Cameron Crowe is receptive to the clichés of the genre. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick SchagerSep 20, 2011
Wholly uninterested in puffing up his subjects into an iconic rock outfit on a par with their idols Led Zeppelin and the Who, Crowe instead merely tells their story free from the constraints of rise-fall-rise clichés. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 20, 2011
The effort - by Vedder & Co., as well as Crowe - is heroic, if not quite persuasive. Legends aren't made of longevity alone, and while you wouldn't wish Kurt Cobain's pain on anyone, you can't help but feel this band survived well past its meaning. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianJoseph RoseSep 20, 2011
At its best, Pearl Jam 20 makes a convincing argument that Nirvana wasn't the most iconic band to rise from the grunge scene. Ultimately, however, Crowe's fanboy treatment pushes it into a mosh pit of mediocrity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 23, 2011
Kurt Cobain, TicketMaster and the tragic concert in Roskilde, Denmark, are addressed through plentiful backstage footage. If only it was about something other than rockers almost irked they got famous. Read full review
40
Village VoiceEric HynesSep 20, 2011
Perhaps Pearl Jam's arc too closely resembles Crowe's own, and he can't see what's so uniquely poignant about dimmed but enduring stars. Read full review
40
VarietyRob NelsonSep 17, 2011
Finding a pulse only in the band's late-reel performance of "Alive," a lusty passage that would've begun a pic intent on making a case for the group's greatness, "Twenty" simply counts the years from 1991 via sludgy backstage and onstage footage whose rarity can't forgive its inclusion. Crowe's critic mentor, the late Lester Bangs, would cringe. Read full review
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