Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Directors
Paul Sng,
Celeste Bell
Cast
Poly Styrene,
Celeste Bell,
Ruth Negga,
Neneh Cherry,
Youth,
Bruno Aleph Wizard
Genre
Documentary,
Music
The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey across the world and through her mother’s archives to reconcile their fraught relationship in this new documentary, featuring Oscar nominee Ruth Negga as the voice of Poly Styrene.
Poly Styrene is an incredibly underrated icon of punk music, and this documentary-- which was co-directed by her daughter-- absolutely did her justice. She was a complicated person, so it was so great to finally see her story told with so much compassion. The usage of archival material and diary entries from Poly herself really deepened my understanding of her.
Consequence
In a genre often saturated with sugar-coated stories and selective memories, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché proves to be anything but.
Consequence by Rachel Reeves
In a genre often saturated with sugar-coated stories and selective memories, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché proves to be anything but.
The New York Times by Lisa Kennedy
More than a journeyman rockumentary, “Poly Styrene” is a thoughtfully finessed filial reckoning: a daughter’s journey toward understanding her mother as a young artist and as a young woman of color.
Original-Cin
The film adds an authentic emotional resonance to an important story about an exceptional human who was singing her mind at a pivotal moment in 20th-century pop-culture history.
Original-Cin by Jennie Punter
The film adds an authentic emotional resonance to an important story about an exceptional human who was singing her mind at a pivotal moment in 20th-century pop-culture history.
Screen Daily by Wendy Ide
As the story progresses, Bell’s decision to share the focus and to examine her relationship with her mother makes more sense, bringing an intimacy and tenderness to the rock documentary format.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
[A] riveting and valuable documentary.
CineVue by Matthew Anderson
An affectionate labour of love, cathartic yet bitterly honest, Bell and Sng’s films paints the full, unfettered picture.
Austin Chronicle
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché is the daughter cinematically coming to terms with their complicated relationship and with a figure who changed our culture.
Austin Chronicle by Tim Stegall
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché is the daughter cinematically coming to terms with their complicated relationship and with a figure who changed our culture.
Movie Nation by Roger Moore
Bell, appearing on camera but speaking in voice-over like everybody else, makes the celebration fun and the tragedy bittersweet in this fine tribute to the mother she only got to know and appreciate “too late” to gain the full benefits of being raised by an icon.
RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny
This restless film is hardly content to present a portrait of an icon, instead insisting, with compassion and clear eyes, that icons are all too human too.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...