The U.S. vs. John Lennon 2006

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Though Lennon's commitment to a peaceful world is vivid and unquestionable, The U.S. vs. John Lennon ultimately emerges as a picture of a different kind of commitment: a love story. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's a movie that, at its best, makes you ache with the memory of an anguished era and its fallen pop culture hero. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Loosely organized but still fascinating. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It feels as if [Ono's] cooperation resulted in a softened perspective on the musician-turned- activist-turned-icon. Read more

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: ...the film feels like an unintentional parody of liberal documentaries that transform complex topics into elaborate cinematic peace signs. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Humanizing Lennon to those who might find the man a bit inaccessible, and adding the word 'courage' to his long list of positive attributes. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The documentary's a hagiography, no mistake about it, but a fascinating one all the same, and it makes the case that Lennon was as much a genius provocateur as he was a cracked saint. Read more

Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times: There's little sign of the honest ambivalence that made Lennon a great artist, if a questionable spokesman. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: His life has been raked over by so many books, movies, magazine articles, and TV shows that The U.S. vs. John Lennon barely justifies its own existence. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: The film's first half has zero to do with its title, and its second half digs up familiar turf. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Works by reminding us of Lennon's best qualities: His impish, imperturbable sense of humor, his quick intelligence, his successful bantering with a hostile crush of world press mercenaries. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The U.S. vs. John Lennon is the easy-listening version of a firebrand documentary; nothing in it is as incendiary as its title. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Entertaining, and a history lesson in hysteria (both on the side of Nixon and the protest movement) for people who were not there. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The aim may be laudable, but nothing gets hit except some awfully tired targets. And fatigue doesn't resonate. Read more

John Payne, L.A. Weekly: A gripping and moving homage that brings in some new-old faces to flank the usual suspects in telling the story of Lennon and his badgering by the FBI. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: What gives the film its spine is the presence of Lennon himself as an articulate, earnest and magnetic social conscience. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Imagine a naive, simplistic documentary about the most complex, cynical member of the Beatles. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: While there is nothing particularly new in the film, it is a stirring celebration of a man of enormous talent, humor and humanity, laid waste by an assassin in New York in 1980. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: By the time The U.S. vs. John Lennon is done, the filmmakers have reinforced the sense that pop music once produced prophets, as well as profits. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Those hoping for something hard-hitting won't find it here. This is strictly on the level of what one might uncover during a VH1 special. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: In exploring a little-known story of political persecution, The U.S. vs. John Lennon also sheds some unexpected light on the uneven and still undigested career of one of the most paradoxical artists pop culture has yet produced. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Concentrates on Lennon's post-Beatles years, in which he did a lot of great work that's overlooked today, and it's good to have a lot shown on that period. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Documentarians David Leaf and John Scheinfeld go beyond the usual glibness, revealing a much fuller portrait of the man. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: The film paints with swaggeringly broad strokes, the basic thesis being Lennon = good, government = bad. Read more

Phil Gallo, Variety: The storyline follows the Ono-approved bio that posits Lennon as saint, excising his dark periods and their years apart, which could have enhanced the portrait. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: This David Leaf-John Scheinfeld production is not only poignant but even topical. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Readers tempted to write off that episode as yet another paranoid fantasy of The Left should take heed: The U.S. vs. John Lennon includes the firsthand testimony of the spies themselves, from apostate FBI agents to the unapologetic G. Gordon Liddy. Read more