Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)
Utopia | Release Date: June 7, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKim HughesJun 8, 2023
Squaring the Circle is a gripping true story told with towering visual panache. Read full review
90
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesJun 16, 2023
Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) is a grand rock and roll buffet with something for everybody. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJun 9, 2023
The age when such images held firm positions in the culture may be over, but Mr. Corbijn’s film has given it a glorious and stirring elegy. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrJan 24, 2023
With Squaring The Circle, Anton Corbijn continues mining the musical past to celebrate his unsung heroes. In this case, he uses the documentary to explore artwork pioneers Hipgnosis, who made history with their innovative approach to album cover design. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 16, 2022
Unpretentious and unassuming, but effective, Corbijn creates his own cozy, sleeve for these trailblazers to get their due and creates a must-watch for rockologists everywhere in the process. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJul 17, 2023
Rock ’n’ roll mythologizing is one of the subjects of Squaring the Circle and Have You Got It, but it’s not their method. Rather than reaching for a neat or aggrandizing summing-up, they grapple with the passage of time and the perspective it brings. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 16, 2023
Control director Anton Corbijn’s first documentary, Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), is a fascinating and suitably maverick snapshot of a richly creative moment in music history, told through a couple of disreputable hippies who designed some of the most iconic album covers of all time. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 13, 2023
Photographer and film-maker Anton Corbijn is the very best person to direct this very enjoyable documentary about design outfit Hipgnosis and its dynamic co-founders Aubrey “Po” Powell and Storm Thorgerson. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid HughesJun 20, 2023
It all adds up to a fascinating, amusing and enjoyably illusion-shattering study of the creative process, suggesting that modern art owes as much to opportunity and happenstance as it does to talent. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJun 15, 2023
Directing his first documentary feature, Corbijn, a longtime music photographer who made the Joy Division docudrama “Control,” is well suited to this material’s creative highs and human dimensions. Read full review
80
VarietyChris WillmanSep 16, 2022
[Corbijn's] creation of this delightful doc as an acolyte, if hardly copycat, will be a boon for an audience that grew up pondering the mysteries of the twisted monolith on Zeppelin’s “Presence” cover; LP porn, if we can call it that, could come to no finer culmination. Read full review
78
TheWrapSteve PondSep 16, 2022
A treat for anyone with a taste for rock, for rock imagery and for the glories that can be found in that piece of cardboard wrapped around a record. Anton Corbijn knows those glories well, so his movie’s got a good beat and a good look. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 7, 2023
Before the heartbreak, there are outlandish and often funny stories about iconic album covers. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 5, 2023
Corbijn has an obsessive eye, and it suits the detail-crazy methods of Powell and Thorgerson. Read full review
70
SlashfilmEthan AndertonJan 25, 2023
It's a standard talking head documentary with plenty of archival footage, as well as some cool, animated interstitials to introduce the album artwork being discussed. But it's the stories from the fathers (hell, they're even grandfathers now) of classic rock and roll, combined with insights from Hipgnosis, that make this a fascinating film. Read full review
67
IndieWireChristian BlauveltSep 16, 2022
What Corbijn lacks in filmmaking panache here he makes up with strong journalistic chops: These interviews are great. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJul 14, 2023
It’s a fun little diversion that’s more interested in the salacious gossip and anecdotes than it is offering a more broad inquiry into how these artworks more generally enhance the music they’re being used to sell. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJun 7, 2023
Squaring the Circle is slick and enjoyable enough, but it is also, like the company it chronicles, something of a boutique item, and the reminiscences grow faintly monotonous after a while. Read full review
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