Velvet Goldmine
Miramax Films | Release Date: November 6, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
There are moments when Velvet Goldmine threatens to collapse under the weight of writer/director Todd Haynes' (Poison, Safe) ambition. But, sometimes amazingly, it doesn't, becoming in the process one of the year's freshest, most exciting films. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Brilliantly reimagines the glam-rock 70's as a brave new world of electrifying theatricality and sexual possibility, to the point where identifying precise figures in this neo-psychedelic landscape is almost beside the point. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
In terms of sheer, unrelenting visual invention, Velvet Goldmine is a wonder. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Velvet Goldmine is no masterpiece, but, at its best, it's a ravishing rock dream. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It's a shimmering, thorny, and consummately self-aware valentine to a paradise, however illusory, lost. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The plot only slows a film that works best as a feast of sight and sound. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The music and camera work are dazzling, and the story has solid sociological insights into a fascinating pop-culture period. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Dazzling and dizzying, confusing and even annoying, Velvet Goldmine is a feverish dream of a film, a riot of color and attitude that is all pop decadence, all night long. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Haynes sets out to demonstrate the power of popular music to change people's lives--to tell them it's OK to fashion themselves into anything they please. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Conceptual to a fault, writer-director Todd Haynes (Poison, Safe) realizes one of his oldest and most cherished projects -- a celebration of the glam-rock era and the bisexuality it turned into an opulent circus -- with wit, glitter, and energy, but with such a scant sense of character or period that it leaves one feeling relatively empty as soon as it's over. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A brainy three-ring circus. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A constantly imaginative, stylistically lively but dramatically inert chronicle of cultural and sexual rebellion. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Weighed down with self-important messages, but it's also splashily opulent. Read full review
70
Washington PostRichard Harrington
The film is a visually beautiful but clumsily plotted mishmash of "Citizen Kane," "Eddie and the Cruisers" and England's last overblown movie musical, "Absolute Beginners." Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The movie is dramatically limp, running out of narrative steam long before the set decorator runs out of colours. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRon Wells
Now the big question: Does this whole thing actually work? Some of the time. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Writer-director Todd Haynes (Safe, Poison) still makes movies like a first-time filmmaker afraid he won't get another chance; he crams every idea, every image ever dreamed, onscreen. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
After a most promising beginning, Velvet Goldmine's progress grows increasingly labored, stumbling around the structural roadblocks Haynes has erected in its path. Read full review
60
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
In trying to compose a poetic love letter to a time of liberation and freedom, Haynes has merely conjured up memories of druggy excess, egotism and tight trousers. The only mementos worth saving from the experience are available on the soundtrack. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerCraig Marine
On the one hand, you want to praise it for its stylishness and originality in tackling some fascinating subject matter. On the other hand, it's frustrating because it could have been so much better. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It wants to be a movie in search of a truth, but it's more like a movie in search of itself. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Director Todd Haynes' (Safe) much-anticipated look at the "glam rock" scene of two decades ago, is like a jigsaw puzzle with half of the pieces missing. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
One can admire it, but it's hard to get caught up in it. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Quite an achievement: the American director Todd Haynes revisits the world of London glam rock and manages to make it look dull. Read full review
20
EmpireNeil Jeffries
On paper, fine; on celluloid, a Rocky Horror Show of nightmarish proportions. Read full review
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