Revenge of the Mekons
Music Box Films | Release Date: October 29, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekOct 28, 2014
What Angio captures, beautifully, is that the Mekons make great music because, together and apart, they’re so alive to the world around them. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubJason HellerOct 29, 2014
The film's strength lies in just how far it's willing to go-and to not go-in the pursuit of mythologizing its subject, a group of aging but unrepentant punks who treat the very idea of mythology like a bad joke. Read full review
90
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergOct 28, 2014
The film is both a generous primer on the band, which grew out of the punk movement in Leeds, England, in 1977, and a celebration of its longevity. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 16, 2015
Normally I’d recommend a rock ’n’ roll documentary to the band’s fans, but since the cult of the Mekons is infinitesimally small, if fanatically devoted, I have no problem recommending Revenge of the Mekons to everyone who hasn’t heard of the group. All 99.9 percent of you. Read full review
80
Time OutKurt GottschalkNov 5, 2014
Angio reveals a band that is still committed and, almost without precedent, still seems to get along. “We weren’t musicians,” singer-guitarist Jon Langford admits. “We were just seeing how far we could take it.” If revenge can be measured in years of continued creativity, this film shows the Mekons have had theirs. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckOct 28, 2014
Revenge of the Mekons is a buoyant exploration of the musicians’ devotion to their art and each other. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanApr 16, 2015
A contagious enthusiasm runs through the heart of Jon Angio’s Revenge of the Mekons, a documentary that celebrates and explores the evolving ethos of the seminal British punk band The Mekons while also proving that some of rock’s most interesting stories come not from success but survival. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 1, 2014
If the most engaging and satisfying documentaries about musical acts tend to come from filmmakers who are smart, passionate fans, that rule perhaps applies doubly when the subject is obscure rather than world-famous. So it is with Revenge of the Mekons. Read full review
75
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeOct 29, 2014
In a way, this marvelous movie does show that the Mekons have declined, because they’ve become the one thing punk rockers never ever want to be: lovable. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerOct 26, 2014
What emerges is a portrait of a fully committed band that could never quite make it and of the rock n' roll project as something between a (very serious) hobby and a full-time career. Read full review
70
The DissolveNoel MurrayOct 28, 2014
Revenge Of The Mekons has none of the raggedness of the band’s best songs, and the movie only occasionally gets to that very Mekons place that novelist Jonathan Franzen describes in the film, where despair and rage over the world’s pervasive injustice resolves into something blackly humorous, and even triumphant. But Angio hasn’t made a glancing, broadly outlined fan-doc, either. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJun 22, 2015
Like many music documentaries, this film suffers from the tendency to reiterate its point too often. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonNov 6, 2014
Director Joe Angio presents the group's music with the contagious enthusiasm of a diehard, but exuberance is no substitute for storytelling, and Revenge of the Mekons is in desperate need of a narrative path. Read full review
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