It's impossible to convey the film's myriad emotions and subtle layers, its agonies and ecstasies, and the sheer rock-n-roll stream of consciousness of it all without sounding like hyperbole.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 6, 2019

The enormously influential punk rock poet, her music and poetry, and the times in which she flourished are indeed best served by a cinematic style that remains determinedly impressionistic.

| Sep 26, 2017

Sebring's drifting tone might leave you bemused, but take it as it comes and it's a captivating insight into modern music's godmother.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 5, 2008

For all its transient black-and-white beauties, denies its subject the sort of solid context that would reveal the scale of her achievements. A patchy, frustrating, though loving tribute.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Dec 5, 2008

An extraordinarily intimate portrait of an extraordinary woman, Dream of Life charms despite being filmed through a sycophantic haze.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 5, 2008

While it fails to place Smith's work and her significance in context, the film certainly captures her charisma, wit and passion.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 5, 2008

There are flashes of insight and genuinely moving moments in this long, meandering, wildly indulgent movie record of poet and singer-songwriter Patti Smith.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2008

Smith, an eloquent subject with a wry view on her life, generously pays tribute to such influential mentors as Dylan, Burroughs and Ginsberg. Her fans should be entranced.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2008

Succeeds in making the 109 minute running time feel like at least eight of the eleven years he took to shoot the film.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2008

...succeeds in showing Patti Smith as a talented, compassionate together woman who knows what she is and what she wants in life. Unfortunately, there was too much fodder mixed in to hold my interest...

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 26, 2008

Sebring took his time filming it and takes his time letting his film unfold, but he has captured it all with a lack of convention that mirrors its subject.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 24, 2008

Patti Smith: Dream of Life vividly illustrates the rewards and pitfalls of a documentary film that is completely enamored of its subject.

| Original Score: C+ | Oct 31, 2008

That spirit of encountering the world with undying artistic curiosity -- and without a plan -- informs Dream of Life, a drifting portrait of Smith.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 23, 2008

If you don't already own "Horses," this movie will make you want to go out and buy it. You'll also want to start surfing the Internet to fill in the blanks that Dream of Life fails to include.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 17, 2008

There's a note of mourning in this otherwise celebratory film -- for punk rock, for New York, for reality, for a time when popular music was animated by something other than money.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2008

Heavy on the gabba-gabba, light on the hey!

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 17, 2008

Gets extra credit for trying something different.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 17, 2008

Dream of Life barely hints at the transformational energy that Smith exudes in person, but it does paint a portrait of a defiantly creative life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 26, 2008

Dream of Life takes a while to find its rhythm but once it does, it's riveting stuff.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 26, 2008

Patti Smith: Dream of Life, fashion photographer Steven Sebring's impressionistic study of the most influential of punk poets, disarms and charms with its honesty.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 26, 2008