Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet Reviews

There are survivor tales, and then there is Jason Becker's, utterly jaw-dropping in its inspiration.

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Music-centric doc offers an undepressing look at Lou Gehrig's disease.

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[Becker] comes across as a warm, funny man blessed with a devoted family and friends.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The film says frustratingly little about how everything is managed financially, but the perseverance by all concerned is beautiful to see.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

Jesse Vile's inspiring heartbreaker of a documentary is cleaved into two well-judged halves: We see Becker continuing on, robbed of speech and movement, yet undiminshed in his musical creativity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Jesse Vile's expertly measured, emotional look at the life of a guitar prodigy cut down by ALS ...

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Jesse Vile's film, despite its best intentions, is merely a serviceable extension of his own fandom.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The story that remains is intriguing without being transporting - the facts are all there but the emotion is largely lost in translation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

What gets you is the smile, which first lights up his face, and then the room, reflected by everyone else who is in it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Rivals Julian Schnabel's 2007 film The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly in its portrayal of human courage and fortitude.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Becker's story is both tragic and inspiring, and his music, with which I was previously unacquainted, is exciting and impressive.

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Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet pays hearty tribute to Paganini-playing shredders and offers up a blueprint for dedicated care in the home and community.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

This humdrum documentary about Becker's life and work is content to wallow in feel-good platitudes and never really shows us what makes the man tick.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

It is impossible not to be moved and to feel that, despite all the horrible things that happen, there's something decent about humans after all.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

We get lots of widdly, widdly solos that thankfully went out of fashion in the Eighties.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A moving, funny and uplifting documentary about a one-time guitar prodigy, Jason Becker, struck down a horrendous degenerative disease, ALS.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A poignant subversion of your boilerplate rockumentary.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Justifiably celebratory and respectful, and it reaches out beyond the rock fanbase.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The true tale of a rock guitar wizard struck down, yet miraculously not struck dumb, by motor neurone disease.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

We never sense Becker's frustration or the forces that drive him, but we can still marvel at his dogged endurance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5