[Some] may be taken aback by the exhibition of sheer ego in what is clearly a form of replacement therapy for those whose ambitions exceed their talents.
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05/22/07
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Air Guitar Nation (2007)
84
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:61
Fresh:51
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: It's up for debate how serious or ironic its subjects are, but Air Guitar Nation is nonetheless a funny and exciting documentary with a killer soundtrack.
Runtime: 81 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:Mar 23, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: A battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, world stage, AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships as legions of aspiring rock stars... [More]
Starring: David S. Jung, Dan Crane, Gordon Hintz, Zac Munro
Director: Alexandra Lipsitz
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Reviews for Air Guitar Nation
There must be better, more useful ways of amusing themselves but obviously none which would allow them to strut the stage to the plaudits of a baying crowd like latter-day rock stars.
11/09/07
Sure, there is an infectious goofiness in watching a grown man in a red robe and Hello Kitty breastplate rock out on an imaginary ax. But the gag is spread pretty thin.
06/22/07
Despite the film’s admirable brevity it’s still hard to maintain a wry ironic grin for a full 81 minutes.
11/09/07
Alexandra Lipsitz believes that air-guitar competitions are worth a whole feature-length movie. She's wrong, of course. But the fun lasts longer than you might think.
03/24/07
Top CriticAir Guitar Nation plays less like a feature-length documentary than it does a poorly thrown together behind-the-scenes supplement to the real thing.
03/22/07
It's a limited movie, from the musical palette the performers choose, to the number of players the movie spends time with.
05/04/07
There are occasional moments of wisdom, drama and emotion, but we never quite forget the blunt confession of one of the founders of the world championship, who admits that the whole thing began as a joke. Psst, buddy: it still is.
04/27/07
The film's action footage -- lots of men and women thrashing around with a theoretical Fender in hand -- gets pretty tedious after a while. There is only so much self-inflicted embarrassment one can bear watching.
05/22/07
Like most guitar solos, the film doesn't quite know when to quit.
11/09/07
Originality 0.9, Presentation 2.3 and Silliness 5.2.
11/09/07
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11/08/07
It's never clear from one moment to the next what is a joke and what is deadly earnest, until the two concepts finally merge into a sort of Buddhist singularity.
03/22/07
Top CriticAir Guitar Nation is a wonderfully wild ride of a documentary, and the greatest trick of the picture is found in how it makes the audience succumb to the power of the sport.
03/22/07
Shot in a raw, grungy style that lends the film a degree of authenticity, AGN is a riff-roaring experience that rarely hits a bum note.
11/09/07
Although Air Guitar Nation is a documentary, Lipsitz stumbled across a couple of compelling characters in Jung and Crane, who are anything but n’air-do-wells.
03/23/07
When a documentary compels you to care about something that you didn't think you had any interest in, well... that rocks!
10/20/07
a fun enough goof to give it 90 minutes of your time as a feature film.
08/18/07
Put aside all of your preconceptions of air guitar as a hobby of shamelessly untalented wanna-be guitar players, and step into the world of competitive air guitar.
04/26/09
the film will be remembered for the overall sense of camaraderie overcoming competition, fraternity trumping rivalry, and the discovery of graciousness in victory and defeat
02/06/07
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