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It might be thinly written and messily made, but Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is also appropriately glamorous and intense -- and powerfully led by a gripping performance from Erik Elmosnino.
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All Critics (82) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (60) | Rotten (22)
It's a comic-strip version of one man's life and times, but it's tres cool. Dec 9, 2011 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
It's a comic-strip version of one man's life and times, but it's tres cool.
Joe Williams
While the movie's on a roll, it's zesty, engaging and frisky. Nov 16, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
While the movie's on a roll, it's zesty, engaging and frisky.
Trevor Johnston
In short, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a charmer. Nov 10, 2011 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
In short, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a charmer.
Steven Rea
French pop star Serge Gainsbourg was as much iconoclast as icon, so it's fitting that this fanciful biopic is both affectionate and irreverent. Nov 4, 2011 | Full Review…
French pop star Serge Gainsbourg was as much iconoclast as icon, so it's fitting that this fanciful biopic is both affectionate and irreverent.
Andrea Gronvall
Alas, "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" loses steam and grows more perfunctory as it wears on. Oct 27, 2011 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
Alas, "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" loses steam and grows more perfunctory as it wears on.
Mick LaSalle
For better and for worse, Sfar's a fan, and his movie is a busy love letter to Gainsbourg that skates along the surface of the legend. Oct 27, 2011 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
For better and for worse, Sfar's a fan, and his movie is a busy love letter to Gainsbourg that skates along the surface of the legend.
Ty Burr
It's as surprising and unconventional as the man himself -- but that doesn't mean it serves him well. Jan 4, 2019 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
It's as surprising and unconventional as the man himself -- but that doesn't mean it serves him well.
Kelly Jane Torrance
Great songs, beautiful girls, lovely costumes and an artist in a constant state of flux are emphasised in Joann Sfar's imaginative, beautiful and suitably bizarre musing on the life of Serge Gainsbourg. Nov 5, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Great songs, beautiful girls, lovely costumes and an artist in a constant state of flux are emphasised in Joann Sfar's imaginative, beautiful and suitably bizarre musing on the life of Serge Gainsbourg.
Kaleem Aftab
If there's one thing that Joann Sfar's Gainsbourg told me, it's that he smoked...a lot. And sometimes, he didn't shave for a few days... However, this was about all the insight provided by Sfar's competent effort. Nov 5, 2018 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…
If there's one thing that Joann Sfar's Gainsbourg told me, it's that he smoked...a lot. And sometimes, he didn't shave for a few days... However, this was about all the insight provided by Sfar's competent effort.
Stephen Glass
The self-consciousness of identity, in the form of that puppet, inevitably gets in the way of the storytelling. Aug 30, 2018 | Full Review…
The self-consciousness of identity, in the form of that puppet, inevitably gets in the way of the storytelling.
Pat Padua
Sfar is helped no end by an astonishing performance from Eric Elmosnino, who also performs many of the songs on the soundtrack. Nov 27, 2017 | Full Review…
Sfar is helped no end by an astonishing performance from Eric Elmosnino, who also performs many of the songs on the soundtrack.
Anne Billson
In conjoining Jewish heritage and classic French chanson, Gainsbourg celebrates the hybridity of contemporary French culture, while its combination of realist narrative and poetic animation make it both a touching biopic and an inspired musical. Jun 18, 2012 | Full Review…
In conjoining Jewish heritage and classic French chanson, Gainsbourg celebrates the hybridity of contemporary French culture, while its combination of realist narrative and poetic animation make it both a touching biopic and an inspired musical.
Ginette Vincendeau
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