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Linda Linda Linda (2005)

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Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 3,314

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Movie Info

Four schoolgirls put the axiom "the show must go on" to the test in this rock & roll teen comedy drama from Japan. Nozumi (Shiori Sekine) and Kyoto (Aki Maeda) are two friends who attend the same high school and have decided to put together a rock band to play the school's talent show. Things are going well until two days before the show, when the group's lead guitarist quits for fear of breaking her fingernails and the singer walks due to lack of interest. Determined to make a showing one way

Unrated, 1 hr. 54 min.

Drama, Art House & International, Comedy

Directed By: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Written By: Kosuke Mukai, Wakako Miyashita, Nobuhiro Yamashita

In Theaters: Jul 23, 2005 Limited

On DVD: May 8, 2007

Viz Pictures

Cast

Critic Reviews for Linda Linda Linda

All Critics (11) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (2) | DVD (3)

An extremely well-written, emotionally complex coming-of-age tale that has a John Hughesian respect for teenage angst.

April 7, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

If The Beatles were teen girls starring in a John Hughes picture made with a distinctly Japanese attention to the comedy of everyday life, the movie showcasing it all would go something like this.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comment

Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Top Critic

An understated and disarmingly human tale of an all-girl band in the runup to the annual rock festival at the members' school.

November 10, 2006 Comment

Jeannette Catsoulis

New York Times

Top Critic

This technically OK but incident-free pic will induce sleep.

September 26, 2005 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment (1)

Dennis Harvey

Variety

Top Critic

Doona Bae shines as the adorably awkward teenager who's never met a stage she's afraid of.

August 6, 2011 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews

| Comment

Laura Clifford

Reeling Reviews

The movie provides a fine, shiny reminiscence of school days, when learning three guitar chords in the right order was the most important thing in the world.

July 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

| Comment

Burl Burlingame

Honolulu Star-Advertiser Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

There's a naturalness to the characters and the script which is rarely achieved in other coming-of-age films.

June 1, 2007 Comment

Rudy Joggerst

Reel.com

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita seems to be aiming for a laconic deadpan tone, yet the static camera work and even-keel pacing elicit more yawns than chuckles.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY

| Comment (1)

Adam Nayman

eye WEEKLY

It's the kind of high-school movie about kids and music that Hollywood would never be able to capture with such intimacy, nuance and restraint.

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Times

| Comment

Ted Fry

Seattle Times

... a lively, engaging, character-driven piece with flourishes of offbeat humor...

December 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The film exhorts a sense of nostalgia for the stressful trials of youth.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Rob Humanick

Slant Magazine

Funny, droll, sweetly directed and note-perfect.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Wally Hammond

Time Out

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Audience Reviews for Linda Linda Linda

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Linda Linda Linda, from Nobuhiro Yamashita, focuses on friendship to put together a schoolgirl band."A music group of girls need to learn to play a song before the school festival." There really isn't a whole lot more to it than that. Spanning nearly two hours, if there is something missing from this

January 15, 2012

Justin Y

Super Reviewer

Sweet Japanese film about four schoolgirls who form a band for the school talent contest. Luckily not as cliched as I'd feared, due to the focus on the girls and their friendship rather than the whole playing in a band thing.

October 15, 2010