The drama is extremely mannered and the symbolism a mite overdone, but it's a visually startling knockout, brilliantly filmed in moody black and white with some dashes of colour.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2025

It’s a movie that is both mythical and intimate, grounded and stylized, external and interior. Every piece of Rumble Fish is consumed by the emotions of the characters, by the tragedy of their lives and the time that is passing.

| Jan 11, 2025

The coolest movie Coppola ever made.

| Sep 26, 2024

…a bold experiment, one which evokes a thoughtful, lyrical, adult attitude rarely seen in cinema…

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2024

... Coppola made Rumble Fish in stylized black and white, like a teen noir seen through the eyes of a kid who has mythologized the idea of street gang chivalry to the point that he can’t see the reality through the idealization.

| Oct 6, 2023

If The Outsiders was S.E. Hinton for the masses, then Rumble Fish was seemingly designed with the art-house crowd in mind.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 10, 2022

With its long shadows and smoke constantly escaping from trash cans or manholes...the only moments of beauty reserved for reflections of moving clouds in windows and chrome.

| Apr 14, 2021

A myth-infused coming-of-age story that's directed with a grandly imaginative visual repertoire to match.

| Jan 4, 2021

The thrust of the narrative couldn't be more opaque, but Coppola and DP Stephen H. Burum concoct a unique visual parable on identity, rebellion, and adolescence.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 12, 2020

There's a long stretch of the beginning of the film that makes a real argument to being the best American filmmaking of the 1980s.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 4, 2020

The penetrating suggestion of its images manages to transport viewers to an incredible and exciting world. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Feb 19, 2020

Almost nothing at all happens In the entire movie.

| Feb 9, 2019

There's almost no peer in its era for the visual style of Rumble Fish and style employed remains one of the standouts in the consistently impressive filmography of Francis Ford Coppola.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 31, 2018

The movie can be seen from several points of view. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 4, 2018

(PODCAST) Although too stagy to stand the test of time, "Rumble Fish" retains the charm of its impossibly young cast that includes Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 31, 2017

The chiaroscuro lighting and shadows are admittedly handsome, but there just isn't enough to keep Rumble Fish afloat in the story department. There's a lot of talking and existential ruminating, but very little forward movement.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 9, 2017

as intriguing and compelling as it is frustrating

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2017

Rumble Fish is like a unisex Sweet 16 gift for children whose favorite hangouts are the pool hall, the Cinmatheque Franaise, and the rings of Saturn.

| Original Score: B | Jan 22, 2012

Teen-gang saga is more intense, violent than the book.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 14, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 29, 2008