The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector
Release Date: June 30, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterKevin Lally
What makes "Ecstasy" essential viewing for any pop-music fan and any student of celebrity pathology is the interview itself. Spector, despite his immodest comparisons of himself to Bach, da Vinci and Galileo, is surprisingly entertaining company, not simply the mad recluse with crazy hair that was his shocking image during the trials. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Currently serving out a sentence that will likely consume the remainder of his life, Spector turns the interview into a trial on his own terms--one that's gripping, revelatory, and a little self-incriminating. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Creepily riveting. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
To have been in junior high school when rhapsodic fugues of yearning like "Spanish Harlem," "Uptown," or "Be My Baby" first poured from the radio is to have a sensibility, if not a fantasy life, in some way molded by this monster of self-absorption; to see The Agony and the Ecstasy is to be discomfitingly haunted by the specter of that long-ago innocence. Read full review
80
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Veering wildly between paranoia (being judged by "12 people who voted for George Bush") and self-aggrandizement (modestly comparing himself to Da Vinci, Bach and Galileo), Spector makes a fascinating subject. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The film casts Spector in a sympathetic light. You can't help feeling sorry for the tormented genius. Read full review
75
NPRElla Taylor
Makes fascinating viewing despite its clumsy bombast. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
With his wide, hollow eyes, nervous fingers and celebrated big hair, Spector is a haunted-looking figure whose words are always compelling no matter what unexpected dissatisfactions they may reveal. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 27, 2011
A fascinating shambles of a documentary - fascinating because its subject is so influential and so deranged, a shambles because its filmmaker can't decide which approach to take and so takes all of them. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid Fear
A little more in-depth insight into a person who both produced that song ("Be My Baby") and pulled a trigger might have been nice. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
This absorbing film isn't an apology or an explanation, but it nonetheless holds plenty of answers - including an amusing dissection of that infamously wiry hair-bear 'fro from the man who wore it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
An imperfect, fascinating film about an imperfect, fascinating man. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineJohn P. McCarthy
Most of its truth (and any irony) is undercut by director Vikram Jayanti's fawning approach. Read full review
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