82
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100In a genre often saturated with sugar-coated stories and selective memories, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché proves to be anything but.
- 90The New York TimesLisa KennedyThe New York TimesLisa KennedyMore than a journeyman rockumentary, “Poly Styrene” is a thoughtfully finessed filial reckoning: a daughter’s journey toward understanding her mother as a young artist and as a young woman of color.
- 83Original-CinOriginal-CinThe film adds an authentic emotional resonance to an important story about an exceptional human who was singing her mind at a pivotal moment in 20th-century pop-culture history.
- 80CineVueMatthew AndersonCineVueMatthew AndersonAn affectionate labour of love, cathartic yet bitterly honest, Bell and Sng’s films paints the full, unfettered picture.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter Bradshaw[A] riveting and valuable documentary.
- 78Austin ChronicleAustin ChroniclePoly Styrene: I Am a Cliché is the daughter cinematically coming to terms with their complicated relationship and with a figure who changed our culture.
- 75RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyThis restless film is hardly content to present a portrait of an icon, instead insisting, with compassion and clear eyes, that icons are all too human too.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreBell, appearing on camera but speaking in voice-over like everybody else, makes the celebration fun and the tragedy bittersweet in this fine tribute to the mother she only got to know and appreciate “too late” to gain the full benefits of being raised by an icon.