Taking Woodstock Reviews
American Profile
Does a great job of recreating the time, place and people that came together to make something magical in the middle of the summer of 1969.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Las Vegas CityLife
A ham-handed attempt to indicate the oncoming tragedy of Altamont ends the film with a touch of contrivance, but it's the only sour note in an otherwise flawless film.
Daily Express
A minor work from Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee that is enjoyable but ultimately underwhelming.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Top CriticThis may be a minor movie, but it displays the hallmarks of a major talent.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Total Film
Some will revel in it, but (younger) viewers may find Taking Woodstock old hat.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Uncut Magazine [UK]
Ang Lee's latest dissection of the American dream is one of his most complex and even most deceptively subversive films.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Radio Times
Their roles are played largely for easy laughs in James Schamus's script, which meanders in an echo of the freewheeling vibe of peace and love.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Shadows on the Wall
Has some great moments along the way, but as a whole never quite comes together
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Scotsman
Lee's film, rambling and maddeningly vague as it often is, does manage eventually to get at why something so ephemeral meant so much to so many.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Brand X
This may be the least ambitious of Lee's films, but his directorial chops still guarantee a worthwhile experience.
Groucho Reviews
On balance Taking Woodstock--like Teichberg--takes after its immigrant American father, evincing a quiet humility in offering its rambling 'little perspective' of an emblematic happening that was almost everything it was cracked up to be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Windy City Times
In a field crowded with sharp, aggressive, edgy comedies it's much more gentle, rounded and endearing. Yet it's not altogether warm and fuzzy - there's plenty of bite here and wry insight, too.
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
A gentle, slow-paced coming-of-age movie, 'Taking Woodstock' is not a movie about the historic concert that observes its 40th anniversary this year.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
Ang Lee's companionable 'Taking Woodstock' is thick with sun and good cheer.
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
I loved this sweet, gentle film, and prize its charms and heart far more than the debatable weightiness of Lee's Lust, Caution.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Movie Dearest
The first half of "Taking Woodstock" is wonderful. Unfortunately, the tone becomes more serious and the pacing meanders in the second half.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
The more tightly Taking Woodstock focuses on history, the more satisfying the experience.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
NewsBlaze
Effectively employs iconic Woodstock imagery not to regenerate a numbing sense of mass nostalgia but rather as a minimalist backdrop against which to amplify the anguished, intimate ordeal of a frustrated individual who wasn't even there.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
