Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind | Telescope Film
Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind

Critic Rating

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User Rating

  • United States

Director Ethan Coen
Cast Jerry Lee Lewis
Genre Documentary

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What are critics saying?

80

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This documentary does something very few films can: it makes you grin with pleasure.

70

Variety by Owen Gleiberman

This is Ethan’s chance to strut his solo stuff. And he does, in a very Ethan Coen way: clever, modest, borderline invisible, but with a kick that sneaks up on you. ... 'Trouble in Mind' plays like an undiluted shot of rock ‘n’ roll moonshine joy.

70

TheWrap by Steve Pond

A tidy 73-minute romp through Lewis’ career that manages to fit in about a dozen staggering performances of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” but still leaves you wishing there was room for a couple more.

70

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

Coen draws from existing interviews and performance footage to create a portrait that is far from definitive, and yet the film’s snapshot quality manages to amplify what is so mythic about the 86-year-old legend — and also what remains so vexing.

70

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

If it weren’t directed by Coen ... Trouble would merit a debut at a less showy festival than Cannes, where reviews would boil down to “damn, they sure dug up a lotta great clips!”

67

IndieWire by Ben Croll

“Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind” is an amiable and easy watch that doesn’t explore too many of the singer’s more unseemly aspects and, by design, cannot.

60

Time Out by Phil de Semlyen

If, though, you’re looking for a more probing look at the man behind the balls of fire, or a pan back to place him in a broader context, Coen’s rockumentary will fall just a little short of satisfying.

60

The Telegraph by Robbie Collin

It’s a witty and affectionate if rather slight archive documentary.

50

The Playlist by Jason Bailey

'Trouble in Mind' barely feels like a movie at all. ... Absent any contemporary reflections by either the subject or outside observers, we’re left with no real idea how anyone feels about Jerry Lee Lewis and his exploits on either side of the camera.

42

The Film Stage by Luke Hicks

Thirty minutes in—with all interesting ledes sufficiently buried or ignored, the charm of his husky southern drawl faded—you realize you’ve been conned into letting Coen take you on a YouTube train of his favorite Lewis performances and interviews. If you like Lewis’s sound, that’s fun for a short while. Then you realize he’s just playing the same songs on repeat and it starts to get annoying, as getting cornered at a party usually does.