76
Metascore
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 89Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleDedicated to Atlantic Records fountainhead Ahmet Ertegun, whose complications from injuries sustained in a tumble backstage at the Beacon resulted in his death, let the record show that a lifetime of musical innovation concluded with dying not at but FROM a Rolling Stones concert.
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThis you-are-there spellbinder is a master director shining his light on the best rock band on the planet.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIn Shine a Light, a crackling concert movie directed by Martin Scorsese, the Rolling Stones are now so old that they seem new again.
- 80NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenThis movie is about giving us a privileged glimpse of the Stones in action. It's a record of an astonishing musical chemistry that has been evolving, with no signs of calcification, for nearly five decades. As a bonus, there are delicious guest appearances by Buddy Guy and Jack White.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyMartin Scorsese’s energetic account of a Stones concert at Gotham’s Beacon Theater in fall 2006 takes full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of aging and the passage of time.
- 70New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMy favorite rock-concert movies, Jonathan Demme’s "Stop Making Sense" and "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," are organic: They chart a miraculous path from sound to soul. Scorsese stays on the outside, as befits his temperament and his subject. Yet there is, amid the whirligig spectacle, a spark of connection.
- 70L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasTo call Shine a Light a documentary doesn’t quite nail it; it’s more of a macro-mentary, shot in such tight close-up that you can see the fillings in Mick’s teeth and the sweat stains in the armpits of his sequined magenta top.
- 60Village VoiceVillage VoiceShine a Light's only point seems to be: You try this at 60. One would hope that, after "The Last Waltz" and "No Direction Home," Scorsese might venture beyond making a glossy episode of "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Nope, and we're not supposed to question it: Like the Stones, Marty's earned the right to coast, especially in his senior years.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe film does not stand up to the current crop of music/concert films like "U2 3D," which brilliantly uses 3-D to show the Irish band in concert so as to encapsulate its relationship to its fans, each other and their own music, and "CSNY: Deja Vu," which hones in on the political connection Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have to their music.
- 50Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanCharlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOutdated before it opened today.