It is disarmingly modest in concept and self-mocking in tone, and so has not inflamed reviewers in quite the way Morrissey's own effort has. However, the fact it's unauthorised means that we don't get to hear his music.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 14, 2018

England is Mine, handsomely filmed for the wide screen, is an auspicious debut for Gill. Even those unfamiliar with Morrissey and his contribution to popular culture should be captivated.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 9, 2018

A handsome little biopic that's sopping wet with the same clichs that its whiny hero so adamantly disavows...

| Original Score: C | Sep 5, 2017

For the majority, Lowden feels restrained by a director who has a very specific, flat vision of a musical legend.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 25, 2017

It's unfortunate that Morrissey biopic England Is Mine can't quite expand its appeal past Smiths fans, because Jack Lowden is quietly effective at being profoundly malcontent.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2017

For the millions of true believers out there - the ones who loved him in 1985 and who would prefer to live in the past rather than listen to the 2017 version of their former hero - the film provides a blissfully melancholy roll call of pleasures.

| Aug 25, 2017

There is ... a great deal of moping.

| Aug 24, 2017

[A] muted, sometimes arresting drama ...

| Aug 23, 2017

It's a biopic that ends before its subject's life-changing work even really begins, so those without the knowledge to fill in the gaps will almost certainly leave wondering why they should care.

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 23, 2017

England Is Mine is a tour ride through a legend's formative years that's more concerned with the familiar signposts than the intricacies of the scenery along the way.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 21, 2017

At certain points in the middle of it, you may think "I'm miserable now," though not in the way that Morrissey had in mind.

| Aug 16, 2017

You don't have to possess an obsessive knowledge of the early life, musical influences and chart hits of the Mancunian pop icon Morrissey to appreciate England is Mine. But it helps.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 4, 2017

It's a little lopsided but there's plenty for Smiths fans to enjoy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 3, 2017

I don't think the makers of England Is Mine deserve our generosity. Their film is drably literal-minded in the obvious connections it draws between the artist and his life.

| Aug 3, 2017

It takes a special kind of biopic to reduce its subject to the least imaginably interesting version of itself.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 3, 2017

As an account of the Adrian Mole-like growing pains of the depressive young would-be artist, the film makes surprisingly poignant viewing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2017

It's decently and honestly acted by Jack Lowden, who keeps the film alive, but it somehow winds up being a story about always following your dream and never giving up and even has an inspirational speech from Morrissey's mum.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2017

Gives Morrissey and Smiths fans a dose of what life was like for the brooding musician before his days as a leading front man.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2017

Not only does England Is Mine reconcile its audience with music in its purest form, but as any lapsed Morrissey fan will tell you, the film even manages to ignite a certain amount of nostalgia for less controversial times.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 2, 2017

Struggles to evoke the atmosphere of its setting - Manchester, 1976-1982 - and to bring its tantalizingly enigmatic subject into satisfying focus.

| Jul 3, 2017