It captures the essence of Bukowski in a powerful and beautiful way.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 4, 2020

This excels by not merely charting the fascinating raw materials of the man's life and work, but in finding a symbiosis between its own aesthetic and the spirit of its subject

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2018

We witness Bukowski warts and all in his worst, in his best, and at his most violent--and we still love him for it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 29, 2009

This thorough documentary is essential for the poet's fans.

| Original Score: A | Jun 30, 2006

there is plenty of conflict to be found in the Bukowski's life and work, yet little of it makes its way into Born into This

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2006

[Bukowski] is never seen in less than fighting spirit or formidable form throughout the documentary Bukowski: Born into This.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 20, 2005

Loving tribute to an American original

| Jun 10, 2005

Dullaghan uncovers the human being behind the myth, thanks again to old footage.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2005

Born Into This, its title taken from one of his poems, is a remarkable movie, because, like Crumb or even American Splendor, it adores the very people most of us might ignore if they passed us on the street.

| Oct 29, 2004

You get to see more of the down side of the man than the genius of his work, it almost falls into that 'too much information' category.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 29, 2004

An amazing, worthy journey.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 28, 2004

a loving tribute to a writer, his craft and, above all, the idea of living and dying by one's own creed

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 30, 2004

Provides an overview of Bukowski's work and allows us to gaze into the soul of a man who built a fortress of toughness around his vulnerable core.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 20, 2004

The filmmaker knows when to shift the rhythm of his investigation. The authenticity of art is woven with the artifice of life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 20, 2004

Bukowski would be better served by a critical examination of his life, one which gets past the sentimental faade of an artist who played the rou to keep from tasting the bitterness (as Stephen Crane once put it) of his own heart.

| Aug 8, 2004

Has the right, Bukowskian approach: Just tell it, just show it, no fancy dancing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2004

Over a period of seven years, Dullaghan interviewed hundreds of people who knew or were affected by Bukowski. The result is both wide-ranging and intimate.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2004

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2004

How much was legend, how much was pose, how much was real? I think it was all real, and the documentary suggests as much.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2004

Would do its curmudgeonly subject proud. The film brings Bukowski back to life for a new generation born into this craziness of which Bukowski tried to make sense.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2004