When You're Strange 2010

Jonathan Zwickel, Seattle Times: In hindsight (and on paper) it all seems old hat, but with savvy editing of intense footage, DiCillo puts us there, onstage, backstage, in the studio, and we're as intoxicated as Morrison's audience. Almost. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Director Tom DiCillo does his damnedest to make his documentary about The Doors unwatchable, but the subject matter is too compelling -- and the vintage footage too electrifying -- to be completely worthless. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Although Doors fans will drool over the prospect of the previously unseen footage, they are unlikely to find anything new here. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: DiCillo approaches this nonfiction project with the glazed eyes of a true fan. He has the participation of surviving band members and a lot of rare, mesmerizing footage at his disposal ... What he doesn't have is critical distance or anything new to say. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Never gets past the standard mythology of the band codified by Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic Read more

Preston Jones, Dallas Morning News: Seeing Morrison blithely hang a lei over the neck of an obviously giddy young woman or watching as Manzarek patiently fields questions helps humanize a group of men all too often shrouded in the mists of legend. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie is stitched together with a narration, spoken by Johnny Depp, that sounds like a highly enlightened Wikipedia entry. Yet DiCillo knows what made this band great. Read more

Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times: Of little interest to anyone beyond hard-core Doors fans hungry for any previously unreleased film or audio content. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A sometimes insightful, sometimes absurdly devotional but steadily engaging film. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: When You're Strange offers a worshipful but insightful portrait of the group... Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Unhappy with what Oliver Stone did to Jim Morrison and the Doors in his 1991 biopic? Here's the doc for you. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: When You're Strange offers a mesmerizing, behind-the-music glimpse at a crucial and bizarre moment in rock history, and maybe in American cultural history, period. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: When You're Strange is a remedial Doors class, taught by a professor who sounds as if he's doing voiceovers for car commercials. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The vitality of crazed angel Jim Morrison is its driving force. Read more

Glenn Whipp, Associated Press: A formal exercise in redundancy, offering no new insights into the much mythologized rock band. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Like so many Doors chroniclers, DiCillo can't help but fall under the singer's spell; it's understandable, but frustrating. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Writer/director Tom DiCillo goes a bit overboard with his rhetoric, describing Morrison as "like an ancient shaman." Johnny Depp's measured narration brings DiCillo's often worshipful words back to earth. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: Primo footage of recording sessions, concert perfs and various backstage trips is ubiquitous--and sadly squandered--amid wall-to-wall voiceover narration that is punishingly banal when not factually sketchy or flat-out false. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: For a couple of years, Morrison was the best act in American show business. And the best thing about it: It wasn't an act. Read more