End of the Century 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Engaging documentary. Read more

Erik Lundegaard, Seattle Times: A satisfying, straightforward documentary with great archive footage and interviews with band members ... and those they influenced. Read more

Lou Carlozo, Chicago Tribune: Does justice to the humble punk band from Queens that influenced everyone from The Clash and Sex Pistols to U2 and Green Day. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Details the group's raucous history with humor and a minimum of hero worship. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A rough-hewn jewel of a documentary that chronicles the rise, demise and troublesome personal lives of the loud, fast New York City quartet synonymous with the term punk rock. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: An essential addition to the growing (and inherently ironic) field of Punkology. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: What audiences will want to talk about is the way the film reveals the quixotic human dynamic between the band members, the personal neuroses that simultaneously kept the group together and pulled it apart. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: A comprehensive look at the punk pioneers that never wears out its welcome. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: [A] compelling film. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's hard not to feel that the Ramones, who never had a hit record, were the greatest band in 50 years to be stonewalled out of success. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A film that does a fine job explaining their importance without airbrushing their foibles. Read more

Falling James, L.A. Weekly: It does pry much deeper into the band's unexpectedly complex and contradictory personalities -- particularly when it comes to the more-tragic- than-comic feud over a girl between lefty lead singer Joey and defiantly conservative guitarist Johnny Ramone. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Fulfills its ambition to give these lost boys from Queens their considerable props, not least as inspiration for arty outcasts everywhere. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: More than most rock documentaries, End of the Century captures the strain of any group effort, and the toll the hard-rock life can take. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: A thorough, gutsy and appropriately scuzzy-looking documentary by Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields, featuring rare footage and interviews with the stars of the CBGB era. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: This absorbing documentary by Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields traces the history of the seminal punk rock band in exhaustive detail. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A deliriously musical portrait of a band that became famous and legendary without the headlining stardom that usually accompanies that. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Fields and Gramaglia suggest, without having to twist our arms, that the Ramones helped change the course of our cultural history. They didn't just usher in the end of the century: They gave it its second wind. Read more

Chris Riemenschneider, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Chronicles their 30-year history in a style befitting the band: bare-bones, frank, nonsensationalized and adamantly unsentimental. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail: The revelations may even deepen your appreciation for the music -- it's incredible that so much dumb fun was generated out of such pain. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Time Out: Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: This is an exhaustive survey, not just of the Ramones, but of the entire underground music scene in New York (and abroad) in the late 1970s. Read more

Robert Christgau, Village Voice: Johnny's analysis and will carry the film. Read more

Richard Harrington, Washington Post: Gramaglia and Fields have uncovered plenty of good historical footage, and the interviews with band members, managers, friends and peer fans confirm not only how influential, but how beloved the Ramones were, particularly the ever-visible Joey. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It gets on the cinematic record that the Ramones were here, and that they mattered. Read more