80
Fluff it may well be, but a more entertaining and engaging piece of fluff you'd be hard pushed to find.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Grabbing every backstage musical cliche by the lapels, it sends each one pirouetting, then sprawling hysterically across the floor. It's hard not to love this kind of tribute.
88
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
The movie is funny, energetic, and enjoyable -- the perfect film for a night or an afternoon out, regardless of what mood you're in. While the plot and characters don't boast any special depth, there's enough freshness to hold just about anyone's interest.
70
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
Baz Luhrmann's Australian film Strictly Ballroom is, in short, pure corn. But it's corn that has been overlaid with a buoyant veneer of spangles and marabou, and with a tireless sense of fun.
20
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
A festival favorite in 1992, this flamboyant Australian crowd pleaser and first feature by Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge") struck me then as one of the more horrific and unpleasant movies I'd seen in quite some time.
75
Luhrmann works aggressively for laughs early in the picture, playing up the gaudiness and piggishness of the old-guard dancers in camera angles as extreme and unflattering as a mid-'80s David Lee Roth video.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The dance-film equivalent of a female impersonator: The movie is absurd and sincere at the same time-it offers an insolent facsimile of grand passion.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Luhrmann is a director with the style and snap to have these tired routines on their feet and kicking like a line of Rockettes.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
What's best about the movie is the sense of madness and mania running just beneath its surface.