81
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 92TheWrapTodd GilchristTheWrapTodd GilchristThe Go-Go’s tackles the seminal all-female ’80s rock band with such honesty, openness and effervescence that it not only rises above that clichéd, almost telegraphed arc but transcends the ranks of other music documentaries to offer a story you desperately want to keep watching, even when you already know where it’s going.
- 90Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzLike the elements of a good hit song, it all comes together and seems fresh. It may sound like something you’ve heard before, but it also sounds new.
- 90Film ThreatFilm ThreatWell-executed interviews of key people and all band members, along with excellent animation and archival research, The Go-Go’s reveals a story of talent, will, friendship, addiction, and forgiveness. The backdrop of the male-dominated music business highlights that these ladies who have stayed brash and whipsmart have always been entirely punk.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard Roeper[A] comprehensive and expertly rendered documentary.
- 80VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanIn the fresh bopping beauty of their punk romantic sound, they kicked open a door of perception. They said to a generation: We got the beat, and you can too.
- 80Rolling StoneDavid FearRolling StoneDavid FearThe doc’s goal: Don’t think of the Go-Go’s as a bit of Reagan-era nostalgia, the musical equivalent of a Rubik’s cube. Think of them as a first-tier, kick-ass rock group, period, full stop, the end. Mission accomplished.
- 80CNNBrian LowryCNNBrian LowryThe Go-Go's has pretty much everything you'd want in a rock documentary, presenting an oral history of the chart-topping all-female group with sex, drugs, music, money, and the intramural squabbling and wounded egos great success tends to unleash. Hard to believe it's been 40 years, but anyone who remembers the band should fall head over heels once again.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyBacked by a wealth of video footage, archival photographs and gig posters, Ellwood captures the determination with which the band thrust itself forward, neither glossing over nor digging too deep into the hint of ruthlessness with which early members — and later, original manager Ginger Canzoneri — were pushed aside as the band became big business.
- This film by Alison Ellwood feels thin. Anemic. Even shortsighted. Sure, the documentary frames the band’s story with that astounding fact of their first number one record, but beyond that underscored point, “The Go-Go’s” plays like paint by numbers for music documentaries.