All Is by My Side 2013

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This is a movie made not with obligatory biopic beats but with verve and freedom, and offhand, I can't think of a better way to honor the genius of Hendrix Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Plays like a hazy, half-remembered dream - perhaps faithful to the spirit of the man, but frustrating if you're actually curious about the facts. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: The film's own spontaneous experimentation provides dazzling context for the musician's impact on the world. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a mood piece, not a biopic, and it works on its own terms. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: "The Wind Cries Mary," "Fire" and "Manic Depression" were all composed during the time period covered by the film, yet never does Hendrix convincingly appear to be an artist in bloom. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: Jimi Hendrix: All Is By My Side knows the pitfalls of musician biopics that cram a lifetime into a formula, and it knows that musicians are more than just their hit songs. It also dissects Hendrix into such thin slices that it's hard to see him at all. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Ridley doesn't present Hendrix's ascension to guitar god in conventional fashion, which is both an interesting and at times frustrating decision. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Ridley doesn't treat Hendrix as a bio-pic enigma to be explained but simply as an instinctual artist, for better and for worse. The only mystery that remains is where the music came from. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: To really understand Hendrix, Ridley would have had to reach much farther back. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A strangely lethargic and self-consciously arty trudge that struggles to find a narrative through-line or turn the great Hendrix into a vivid personality. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Andre Benjamin, from OutKast, is perfect as Hendrix, nailing his look (the teased-out nimbus of hair and groovy Carnaby Street threads) as well as his space-cadet cadences, his selfish dark side, and the way he comes alive on stage. Read more

James Rocchi, Film.com: If you're expecting all of Hendrix's familiar numbers, you'll be disappointed, but you're interested in the human being who made those hits, you'll find your sense of the new rewarded even as your sense of the familiar is let down. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Intimate take on a slice of Hendrix's life is more convincing than many full-blown biopics. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: None of Jimi Hendrix's classic music found its way into "Jimi: All Is By My Side," but that doesn't hurt this moody, mesmerizing film one bit. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A hip-looking mess of a movie, made tolerable by Benjamin's spacey-cool Hendrix. Great costumes, few insights. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Most of the action occurs below the surface -- genius giving birth to ideas, ambition crystallizing into action -- and, at times, Ridley's direction evokes the inner life with subtle invention. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Thanks to Benjamin's performance and the unique quality of the subject itself, the movie's hard to dismiss. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: "Jimi: All Is by My Side" manages to keep an aura of mystery while letting us see the inspiration. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: One reason "All Is by My Side" works is that the story - with its girl, guy, guitar and revolution - is enjoyable, whether it's precisely true or not. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Benjamin captures Hendrix's nodding swagger, his effortless cool, and most important, his voice - going beyond mimicry into some other, spookier realm. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: It's a risky approach that's bound to frustrate many folks, but it's also quite illuminating in its own way. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: There's no doubt that Andre Benjamin is the film's magnetic core. His silky-voiced, dangerously volatile turn as Jimi Hendrix is a star-spangled triumph. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A flawed, ambitious and deeply peculiar portrait of one of the 20th century's most enigmatic musical talents, in the year before he ascended to rock-god status, that resembles no other pop-music biopic you've ever seen. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Think of a famous Hendrix song. For that matter, think of an obscure Hendrix song. Whatever you're thinking of, it's not in the movie. That's a little like making a film about Henry Ford without ever showing a car. Read more

Chris Riemenschneider, Minneapolis Star Tribune: [Benjamin's] mesmerizing work saves this unique and somewhat controversial new biopic from a level of entirely un-Jimi-like mediocrity. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: A monotonously grim portrait that's more rewarding in theory than execution. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: It at least has a spark of life to it, and Ridley's decision to focus on Hendrix's first year in London - from 1966 to 1967 - frees rather than limits him. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: You can sense the movie's desire to break free of the demands of the rock biopic, but you can also sense it constantly being pulled back. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Liberated from playing the hits, Benjamin eloquently captures Hendrix's emerging style without having to succumb to jukebox-musical opportunism. Read more