Very few music documentaries in the history of the form have more successfully conveyed the inner workings and outer artistic expression of a band than Cameron Crowe's brilliant Pearl Jam Twenty.

| Original Score: 5.0/5.0 | Sep 29, 2011

Crowe has assembled some top-drawer ephemera -- old show posters, home movies, and candid backstage footage -- but he overestimates his audience's patience for present-day talking-head interviews.

| Sep 23, 2011

With its intimacy and (this can't be emphasized enough) fantastic sound, Pearl Jam Twenty is like two hours spent rediscovering the band through excellent headphones.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 23, 2011

If only it was about something other than rockers almost irked they got famous.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2011

In a better film, Crowe would have played journalist instead of fan boy.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 23, 2011

By the time "Pearl Jam Twenty" is over we can't help but be impressed by the kind of personal and professional integrity that has kept the band honest and allowed them to endure and prosper.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2011

While the movie may not have the insight of D. A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" or even Phil Joanou's U2 travelogue, "Rattle and Hum," Pearl Jam devotees will not go home musically unnourished.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2011

If Pearl Jam Twenty has its share of hyperbole, it's leavened with humor, self-deprecating commentary, and a deep-pockets budget's worth of great clips.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 22, 2011

What makes Pearl Jam Twenty a little better than the average fan-friendly documentary is that Crowe focuses on the more significant parts of the Pearl Jam story.

| Original Score: B | Sep 22, 2011

Cameron Crowe's chronicle of the Seattle grunge quintet's first two decades is undeniably thorough - even offshoot Temple of the Dog gets the spotlight - but it's also weirdly self-aggrandizing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 21, 2011

Perhaps Pearl Jam's arc too closely resembles Crowe's own, and he can't see what's so uniquely poignant about dimmed but enduring stars.

| Sep 20, 2011

Any enterprise like this is inherently self-congratulatory, but the film is best considered from Crowe's perspective: that of a fan.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 20, 2011

A loving, gracefully crafted retrospective that shrewdly eschews Behind the Music conventions at most turns.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 20, 2011

The music's the thing and Crowe lets it rip.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 16, 2011

Vedder is charming, his band rather bland. As trips down memory lane go, it's a bit of a trudge.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 15, 2011

PJ is far from the key band of its moment (and where's that movie?), resulting in a doc that feels padded.

| Sep 14, 2011