50
While all the interview subjects are enthusiastic, the overall lack of familiarity with Rodriquez's personal background and career collapse begin to drag.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Music fans will love this indie documentary. Try to avoid Googling him before you watch, though.
70
A winning musical detective story about a failed, forgotten early '70s rocker.
60
So why is this songwriter, so articulate on vinyl, so vague and spacey in current-day interviews? Something happened here, deeper than an aborted quest for fame, and the documentary hasn't gotten to it.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The yarn is too irresistible: We're fed plenty of sugar in this authorized fairy tale, but are left hungry for beef.
91
Though unabashedly manipulative in its storytelling and structure, Searching For Sugar Man ultimately earns its happy ending and buzzy, crowd-pleasing populist appeal by alchemizing trembling inner-city pain into transcendent international beauty.
60
Boxoffice Magazine by Ray Greene
Like "Anvil," this is a crowd-pleasing triumph of the spirit, framed around a story so bizarre it sounds like an urban legend.