We've been here. We've done this. And I'm sure the memory of Django Reinhardt deserved better than this.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 8, 2020

The film contains a number of fictionalized characters and scenarios that ring false... but the extended musical numbers by Reinhardt's Quintette du Hot Club de France are wonderful.

| Apr 9, 2020

beautiful and atmospheric

| Aug 27, 2018

A more honest script might've supported Reda Kateb's laid-back, medium-effective portrayal of Reinhardt more fully. As is, he's depicted as an artist man floating through his awful times, living for the music.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 1, 2018

"Django" will leave fans of the legend merely eager to return to their beloved recordings and let their ears take in the greatness.

| Jan 18, 2018

The film's story - loosely adapted from Alexis Salatko's novel Folles de Django - manages to feel at once oversimplified, underfed and overburdened.

| Jan 11, 2018

The low-key, languorous pace suits the subject matter if viewers can settle in to a fictionalized story, but one that reminds us of the Romani massacres.

| Jan 9, 2018

It sounds as fresh today as it did in the 1930s.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2018

Great musician; dull, hollow film.

| Jan 5, 2018

Django is for the most part everything Reinhardt's music was not: listless, glum and meandering.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 5, 2018

Django expresses, via the language of film genre, not what Reinhardt's life was but what it might have felt like.

| Jan 5, 2018

The finale enlivens an otherwise staid biopic, but whether the film has earned a moment of uplift is unclear.

| Jan 4, 2018

Argues that some Romani music has African foundations.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 30, 2017

Offers a powerful contrast between horror and artistry.

| Jul 20, 2017

This period drama about Django Reinhardt will please fans of his music while dismaying those looking for concrete facts about the life of the a Belgium-born French jazz guitarist of Romani decent.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2017

When Django Reinhardt's fingers aren't dancing across guitar strings, the film has all the vitality of an educational film shown by a substitute teacher.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 6, 2017

There's an urgent impetus at the heart of this film, far beyond the realm of either flat period biopic or mere history lesson.

| Feb 20, 2017

A prime opera done right, but at the same time is very conventional and doesn't go deeper into the life or music of the celebrated performer and composer. [Full review in Spanish]

| Feb 15, 2017

Reda Kateb is given his meatiest role to date as one of jazz's foremost artists.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 10, 2017

The film's most crucial shortcoming lies in its failure to illuminate both the inner life of its subject and his artistic genius.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 9, 2017