Swan Song
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 6, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesTara BradyJun 14, 2022
Inspired by a real-life Sandusky, Ohio legend, writer-director Todd Stephens crafts an impeccable odyssey that ponders love, loss, and attitudinal changes. Read full review
90
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerAug 12, 2021
It’s quite a film Stephens has made. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 23, 2021
The film is built on a wonderfully nuanced performance by Kier, who behind his sadness and longing can still lob a sassy witticism at rival Dee Dee Dale, and when they finally confront each other over discontinued hair spray, it’s pure joy to watch. Read full review
83
ConsequenceRachel ReevesMar 19, 2021
Even when the narrative strays or lingers a few moments too long, it is Kier that reels it back in. Ultimately, Swan Song succeeds and proves that fabulousness has no expiration date. Read full review
80
Little White LiesEmily MaskellJun 10, 2022
Paying homage to a true hometown pioneer, Stephens’ portrait of a gentleman who knows how to be nothing but entirely himself is a compassionate and colourful character study. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreAug 10, 2021
Swan Song is a tremendously tender love letter to someone who survived so many of the slings and arrows that accompanied being an openly gay man in a small, conservative area. Read full review
80
Film ThreatLorry KiktaAug 6, 2021
Stephens knows how to get outstanding performances from all the actors. He creates a whimsical atmosphere in a scenario that could be unbearable heavy. This is probably one of the most fun movies I’ve seen that hangs its hat in a land of death. Yet, it celebrates life, which we all need a little bit more of, don’t you think? Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 19, 2021
What's most notable about Todd Stephens' heartfelt salute to a real-life local legend is that the campiness of its outrageous plot becomes secondary to the soulful poignancy. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 12, 2021
Kier makes a most companionable tour guide for us as the day gently, sadly and amusingly makes its way to the long night to come. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeAug 5, 2021
Swan Song can be clumsy and sentimental at times, but that’s sometimes the cost of earnestness. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMark HansonAug 3, 2021
The disconnect between the realities of different generations of gay men is one of Swan Song’s most unexpectedly joyful through lines. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMar 19, 2021
Kier gets the role of his lifetime as a fabulously snarky, acerbic, long-retired hairdresser in Todd Stephens’ Swan Song, a dark comedy that totters to and fro the campy and the melancholic with wincing laughs and real pain. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersAug 6, 2021
A little too broad at times, Swan Song smartly balances its excesses with small, sweet moments that leave an impression on the audience just as significant as Pat’s imprint on Sandusky. Read full review
70
TheWrapDan CallahanAug 5, 2021
The more commercial way of doing this story would have been to make Pat into a flinty and sassy guy no matter what, but Stephens chooses the more realistic path of making him into a person with flaws and a great deal of vulnerability, almost to a fault. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 19, 2021
Writer-director Todd Stephens can allow quirkiness to overwhelm the thin narrative, but the story’s emotional underpinnings guide the film past its occasional rough spots. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfAug 12, 2021
Stephens’ film is a sweet gesture, a personal ode to a hometown hero of his, and while the filmmaking itself is rusty, there’s enough love from Stephens and Kier alike to keep this little film afloat. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJason BaileyMar 19, 2021
The pacing is wobbly – it runs a too-flabby 105 minutes – and some of the filmmaking is pretty rickety . . . . But Swan Song is about its performers, and they shine. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 6, 2021
Unfortunately, the film gets derailed by tonal inconsistencies and a clichéd plot that undermines the strength of its memorable outlier sections. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentJun 14, 2022
Though not always as profound as it aims for, Swan Song is a tender, warm-hearted reflection of a life well lived. If it’s possible for a prolific septuagenarian to be a revelation, Udo Kier is exactly that. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 8, 2022
Like Werner Herzog, Kier’s German accent lends a deadpan drollery to everything he says, but there is a gooey soft-centre to his film, and Kier carries that off reasonably well, his face becoming almost boyish. Another intriguing persona in the Udo Kier gallery. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineKyle TurnerAug 6, 2021
Concerning itself with death and history, Swan Song asks for an assured hand, but gets an ambitious assistant’s—one whose scrutiny and interest in the assortment of ideas within the work dithers, but whose ideas are nonetheless present if left only simmering. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 5, 2021
Kier is unfailingly captivating in the film, which makes it all the more bothersome that the film itself doesn’t match him. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 19, 2021
Kier isn’t panhandling for laughs by playing some tired gay stereotype. There’s a heart-on-his-sleeve sincerity to the performance that’s better than the material merits, for Stephens has written an earnest but anemic script. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneGuy LodgeAug 9, 2021
An otherwise mild-mannered diversion from the American indie hinterland, Swan Song is the rare film to give this cult actor the center-stage spotlight, and a mirrorball-refracted spotlight at that. The fact that he’s in every scene of Todd Stephens’ sentimental queer comedy is, it turns out, the boldest decision in a film that doesn’t always honor its professed credo to live life out loud. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 12, 2022
Todd Stephens’s film is an amiable little story, and Kier is clearly enjoying himself immensely, but this is as wafting and insubstantial as Patrick’s chiffon scarf. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 2, 2021
The film is kindly and well-intended, but it’s also sentimental and lifeless. Swan Song is a rare movie without a single good scene. Read full review
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