77
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekVillage VoiceStephanie ZacharekWhat Angio captures, beautifully, is that the Mekons make great music because, together and apart, they’re so alive to the world around them.
- 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.
- 90The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe 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.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckRevenge of the Mekons is a buoyant exploration of the musicians’ devotion to their art and each other.
- 80Time OutTime OutAngio 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.
- 75Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerSlant MagazineAndrew SchenkerWhat 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.
- 75New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeIn 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.
- 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.
- 70The DissolveNoel MurrayThe DissolveNoel MurrayRevenge 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.
- 50Entertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonEntertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonDirector 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.