Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 93
Fresh: 88 | Rotten: 5
Affectionate without sacrificing honesty, Behind the Candelabra couples award-worthy performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon with some typically sharp direction from Steven Soderbergh.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 2
Affectionate without sacrificing honesty, Behind the Candelabra couples award-worthy performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon with some typically sharp direction from Steven Soderbergh.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 7,342
Movie Info
Before Elvis, before Elton John, Madonna and Lady Gaga, there was Liberace: virtuoso pianist, outrageous entertainer and flamboyant star of stage and television. A name synonymous with showmanship, extravagance and candelabras, he was a world-renowned performer with a flair that endeared him to his audiences and created a loyal fan base spanning his 40-year career. Liberace lived lavishly and embraced a lifestyle of excess both on and off stage. In summer 1977, handsome young stranger Scott
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All Critics (93) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (5)
It's both a romp and uncomfortably real.
Top CriticWitty, briskly paced and consistently entertaining.
Buffed to a typical HBO high gloss, Candelabra is a visual feast. It shines brightest in those moments where it captures the rhythms of a relationship in its first blush of affection and its seemingly inevitable collapse.
The stunning and quite intimate performances by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are award-worthy.
This is one of the strangest and strongest TV movies in memory.
The story as told is just too depressing, too empty and, most of all, too dead and gone.
Douglas made his name playing powerful, morally questionable men, and this is a clever addition to the canon.
Michael Douglas transforms himself into the Las Vegas entertainer with style and, most of all, believability. Liberace was larger-than-life to say the least, and it would be easy to go the SNL route with a character by painting him with broad strokes.
Soderbergh and LaGravenese go deep beneath this voyeuristic fascination with wealth, fame, and the secret lives of celebrities.
One of [Soderbergh's] strengths is in the way he subverts traditional narratives and finds interesting moments that other directors wouldn't think twice about.
Crammed with garish decor, wild costumes and some unapologetically affected central performances, the final chapter in the life of flamboyant pianist Liberace gets a feisty, full-bodied treatment here.
With a lovely musical score by Marvin Hamlisch and Douglas and Damon perfectly comfortable with, you know, the gay thing, this is less surprising in its depiction of Liberace as a rampant queen than its authorised view of him as a complete bastard.
Michael Douglas turns in a charming performance as Liberace.
Behind the Candelabra is a fascinating peek into the secret life of an icon; the sad (reportedly) last hurrah of a cinematic maverick and proof that Douglas and Damon are fabulous.
The production design is terrific, revelling not just in period detail but in all of Liberace's excesses, and, typically, Soderbergh's camera and use of music are never anything other than top notch.
Soderbergh's masterstroke is how well he takes the audience on the journey of initially finding Liberace's world absurd and comedic, to ultimately feeling empathy for him.
It's ultimately a story about the power imbalances in relationships, and the quietly devastating way that couples can build one another up, only to tear each other down.
Its raison d'etre is a terrifically spirited performance from Hollywood's most heterosexual of Lotharios, Michael Douglas, aided and abetted by Damon and Lowe.
The screenplay's ability to keep us engaged and involved that the opulence loses its lustre and the things that matter in life rise to the top
In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, this is a project that might have gone terribly wrong, but ranking high on the entertainment meter, it smacks of authenticity, has pizzazz, humour, poignancy and above all, heart
Fearless and fabulous
As fabulous as it should be and not a jot more or less.
Excellent performances by Douglas and Damon highlight this tale of love and need.
It's the best skewering and celebration of celebrity I've seen in some time. Televisual origins be damned: this is one of the year's best movies.
Vivid romance between over-the-top men has drugs and sex.
Fun, entertaining and well-judged, Behind The Candelabra is absolutely fabulous. If this is the last we hear from Steven Soderbergh he's went out on a high.
Audience Reviews for Behind the Candelabra
Super Reviewer
As a huge fan of Soderbergh's films, I ultimately don't know what drew him to this project, as it wasn't evident in what I saw by any means.
Super Reviewer
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| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
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| Behind the Candelabra | 19 days ago | 1 |
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Latest News on Behind the Candelabra
September 17, 2013:
Digital Multiplex: This Is the End, The Croods, and MoreThis week in streaming video, we've got a Certified Fresh apocalypse comedy, a prehistoric family...
September 16, 2013:
Behind the Candelabra Tops Creative Arts Emmy AwardsThe HBO Liberace biopic won eight awards at Sunday's ceremony.
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Foreign Titles
- Liberace - Zuviel des Guten ist wundervoll (DE)
- Ma vie avec Liberace (FR)
