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TAKING WOODSTOCKMovie Reviews
Comedy about Woodstock and the true story of Elliot Tiber, who pulled strings to ensure that the festival would take place so he could help his parents save their foundering Catskills motel. Cast:Dan Fogler, Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Emile HirschDirector:Ang LeeRelease Date:August 26, 2009DVD Release:December 15, 2009From:Focus FeaturesRating:RLength:2 hr. 0 min.
Taking Woodstock played to moderate reviews. • David Ansen wrote in Newsweek, "...a sweet, anecdotal, comic embrace, a gentle reminder that it was once possible to overcome the cynicism of the times..." • And Ann Hornaday wrote in the Washington Post, "...makes up in warmth, humanism and self-effacing modesty what it lacks in crackerjack pacing and epic pop-historical grandeur." More Reviews Below...
Jason Lynch, People: MODERATE(cg) "As the saying goes, if you can remember Woodstock, you weren't there.... lackluster... fades from memory moments after you leave the theater."(See all of Jason Lynch's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 195 words, 08/27/09
David Ansen, Newsweek: GOOD "...sweet, anecdotal... a gentle reminder that it was once possible to overcome the cynicism of the times and believe that 'the flow' leads in a benign direction."(See all of David Ansen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 438 words, 08/10/09
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: EXCELLENT(cg) "...impressively staged, thinly written... mostly stays away from the festival's electric center... Lee captures the fractious, joyful, monstrously evolving mass it all was."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 257 words, 08/28/09
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: MODERATE(cg) "...the result is too lightweight.... Peace, love, not much else... it ends up being forgettable, when it could have taken a little piece of your heart."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 650 words, 08/25/09
Thelma Adams, Us Weekly: MODERATE(cg) "While good-natured, the dramedy's middlebrow direction and writing project a theme-park version of the epic music event that makes the gathering seem almost irrelevant."(See all of Thelma Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 70 words, 08/27/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...captures the mellow mood and mud-caked faces of the crowd but misses the reverberations of the counterculture revolution..."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 458 words, 08/26/09
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (12 Reviews)
Stephen Holden, New York Times: GOOD "...a likable, humane movie.... essentially a small, intimate film into which is fitted a peripheral view of the landmark event.... gentle, meandering..."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,058 words, 08/26/09
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "It's great that 'Taking Woodstock' doesn't trample on anything sacred, but it also never arrives anywhere interesting."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 400 words, 08/28/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...an entertaining film about the kid who made it all possible.... has the freshness of something being created, not remembered."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 807 words, 08/27/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...a meticulously rendered and achingly authentic portrait... by turns sweeping and intimate, poignant and painful, funny and flat, emotional and emotionless..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 934 words, 08/26/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: WEAK(cg) "...turns the fabled music festival, a key cultural moment of the late 20th century, into an exceedingly lame, heavily clichéd, thumb-sucking bore."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 535 words, 08/26/09
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "...unusually for a Lee picture, not everybody in the ensemble appears to be acting in the same universe, let alone the same story. On the other hand: It's fun."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 619 words, 08/28/09
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: MODERATE(cg) "...a story potentially full of color, chaos and transformation. But the movie is frustratingly sedate, more opiate than hallucinogen."(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 338 words, 08/26/09
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: FAIR "Its first half is modest and likable, but it goes on for over two hours, and even with some gay smooching and a lengthy acid trip it stays cool and cerebral; it doesn't build."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 829 words, 08/31/09
Rick Groen, Toronto Globe & Mail: MODERATE(cg) "...the script has a dubious source, taken from a memoir by Elliot Tiber that, based on this evidence, does nothing to scrape the rust off Woodstock's mythic cliché."(See all of Rick Groen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 771 words, 08/28/09
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...does nothing more than recycle the same late-'60s tropes seen countless times... a film for those who like children's stories about tumultuous times..."(See all of Melissa Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 629 words, 08/26/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the performances are good, especially Martin as the guy whose life is changed by Woodstock, Emile Hirsch as a damaged Vietnam vet and Groff as the Zen-like Lang."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 211 words, 08/27/09
KEY CITIES (16 Reviews)
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: GOOD(cg) "...makes up in warmth, humanism and self-effacing modesty what it lacks in crackerjack pacing and epic pop-historical grandeur.... surprisingly subversive."(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,210 words, 08/28/09
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "...has the appeal of an inside story told from an especially good angle.... a celebration of the way this event has gone into memory and of the meaning it has acquired."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 767 words, 08/28/09
Preston Jones, Dallas Morning News: WEAK(cg) "...fails to achieve anything beyond a contact high because of Demetri Martin's listless performance as the central character."(See all of Preston Jones's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 430 words, 08/28/09
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) "Lee distills the flavor of this transforming event and hints at how it transformed some who were there. His movie is a contact high."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 600 words, 08/28/09
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Lee has gone for shaggy comedy. Some of it is funny.... Nothing so specific as sex happens, just a lot of writhing, fumbling, and waking up beside a stranger..."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 831 words, 08/28/09
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...favors small human gestures over Dionysian freakouts. Director Ang Lee uses a vast canvas to tell a charming, if somewhat muddled, coming-of-age story."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 572 words, 08/28/09
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...has its pleasures; it's really a sweet-natured coming-of-age tale, with a famously groundbreaking rock concert lurking in the background."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 546 words, 08/28/09
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: MODERATE(cg) "...an interesting idea for a movie.... Good idea. Not the most accomplished execution.... it's an uneven film that never really goes anywhere."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 464 words, 08/28/09
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: GOOD(cg) "Dear-hearted but fuzzy... Lee's film is interested not so much in the massive concert as in the Catskill Mountains community which hosted it, however unwillingly."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 749 words, 08/28/09
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: EXCELLENT(cg) "This is the way we should remember Woodstock -- a sea of people, a river of mud, a mountain of garbage and a whole lotta love."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 563 words, 08/28/09
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: MODERATE(cg) "For a story about a concert that supposedly rocked the planet, 'Taking Woodstock' is awfully amiable and dull.... the film acts as if Pat Boone was headlining."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 696 words, 08/28/09
Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun: VERY GOOD(cg) "Maybe it's all too wonderful to be true, but that's OK. If 'Taking Woodstock' is a fantasy, then it's a most benevolent one, and more power to it."(See all of Chris Kaltenbach's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 836 words, 08/28/09
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...it is big-screen newcomer Jonathan Groff who mesmerizes as concert producer Michael Lang... Groff brings a knowingness and a sexiness to the role."(See all of Lisa Kennedy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 797 words, 08/28/09
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (6 Reviews)
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "...does nothing more than recycle the same late-'60s tropes seen countless times... a film for those who like children's stories about tumultuous times..."(See all of Melissa Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 629 words, 08/26/09
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "It's no strain to see what Lee is aiming for and only fitfully achieves: a sweet comedy of transformation... the film's major sin of omission: the music."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 322 words, 08/21/09
Chris Faraone, Boston Phoenix: VERY GOOD(cg) "...based on real events -- at least for the most part.... does a good job with the anecdotal memories that make up the remarkable story..."(See all of Chris Faraone's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 592 words, 08/27/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the performances are good, especially Martin as the guy whose life is changed by Woodstock, Emile Hirsch as a damaged Vietnam vet and Groff as the Zen-like Lang."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 211 words, 08/27/09
HIGHBROW PRESS (4 Reviews)
Stephen Holden, New York Times: GOOD "...a likable, humane movie.... essentially a small, intimate film into which is fitted a peripheral view of the landmark event.... gentle, meandering..."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,058 words, 08/26/09
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: FAIR "You can't deny the smiling mood... but not once does a character's show of feeling stir you, send you, or stop you in your tracks, and the loss is unsustainable."(See all of Anthony Lane's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 920 words, 08/24/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...a meticulously rendered and achingly authentic portrait... by turns sweeping and intimate, poignant and painful, funny and flat, emotional and emotionless..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 934 words, 08/26/09
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety: MODERATE "Gentle, genial and about as memorable as a mild reefer high... serves up intermittent pleasures but is too raggedy and laid-back for its own good..."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,044 words, 05/17/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...a meticulously rendered and achingly authentic portrait... by turns sweeping and intimate, poignant and painful, funny and flat, emotional and emotionless..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 934 words, 08/26/09
Stephen Holden, New York Times: GOOD "...a likable, humane movie.... essentially a small, intimate film into which is fitted a peripheral view of the landmark event.... gentle, meandering..."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,058 words, 08/26/09
18.2 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Taking Woodstock's reviews are separated by an average 18.2 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Taking Woodstock (42 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Taking Woodstock's reviews cover 89.4% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 26,190 words involume (average is 20,172 words). Length:The film's reviews average 624 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 22.3 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Taking Woodstock's reviews on average broke 22.3 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Taking Woodstock's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Taking Woodstock (42 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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