Backstage Reviews

Backstage doesn't really tell us much about the world of rock musicians, or the mental workings of their scariest fans.

Full Review | Original Score: C

A weakly conceived drama with a central performance that serves as the final nail in the coffin.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Backstage reveals a tender, creepy transaction between idol and idolator.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

From that very first scene, which plays like a berserk fantasy erupting into the movie's 'reality,' I found Backstage almost impossible to believe.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Spine-tingling suspense comes from a young girl ... undeterred by a star's confession that she really can't offer any of the validation that her fans so desperately crave.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

My problem is with Isild Le Besco: She tends to be a bit of a blank and doesn't project any sort of personality. Her blandness may seem appropriate for the roles in which she is cast, but when she is on screen, the movie comes to a dead halt.

Full Review | Original Score: C

A complex psychological thriller that serves as a modern-day, darker variation on All About Eve.

An enjoyably overwrought meditation on the consequences of celebrity and the vicissitudes of fandom.

Full Review

Backstage's main problem is [director] Bercot's insistence on pumping an essentially comic story full of existential dread.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

While le Besco and Seigner are always interesting, the familiar material isn't worth the detour.

Full Review

There's a pleasing tension in the air as their relationship comes to seem like something of a contest: With two women this needy, who will out-crazy the other?

| Original Score: 3/4

When Lauren (Emmanuelle Seigner) unwisely allows her biggest fan, Lucie (Isild Le Besco ), into her life, we know that little good can come of it.

| Original Score: 3.5/5

The real fun of the piece, however, is Seigner, who plays the downhill diva to the hilt, throwing cell phones and tantrums that would put Naomi Campbell to shame.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Director Emmanuelle Bercot's film offers a fascinating account of how a vulnerable star might mistake fan worship for something real.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A creepy look at the borderline personalities on both sides of the line between celebrity and citizen.

| Original Score: 3/4

Depicting the thorny relationship shared by pop star and fan, Backstage radiates not the nostalgic sentimentality of Almost Famous but raw, pathetic, obsessive desperation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Almost unnervingly feral in the same vein as actresses Samantha Morton or Sylvie Testud, [Isild] Le Besco's hysterically-pitched outbursts overpower everyone else onscreen, even Emmanuelle Seigner's boozy, uninhibited Lauren.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Undeniably rousing... Seigner shows astonishing range... Even more tremendous is Le Besco, whose blank, teary-eyed gazes and guarded battles against her own immaturity feel painfully frank.

Full Review

As megastar Lauren, Seigner (who also sings) is a plausibly charismatic mix of ego and neurosis, while de Besco is outstanding as teenager Lucie.

Full Review

Backstage at times has an operatic emotional intensity that will turn off some viewers but provide a guilty pleasure for others.

Full Review