All the usual coming of age tropes are present and correct, but it's nothing we haven't seen numerous times before.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 26, 2019

It all feels too simplistic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 23, 2018

If you want to mosh about in Stone Roses nostalgia, check out Shane Meadows doc Made Of Stone instead.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 5, 2017

Taking its cue from the sort of pandering nostalgia that usually gets peddled to Baby Boomers, Mat Whitecross' irritating Spike Island follows a teenage gang of the Stone Roses' superfans in 1990 Manchester.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 30, 2015

Though the story is drawn in broad strokes and overloaded with melodrama, director Mat Whitecross' exuberant feature understands the communal joy and personal necessity of rock 'n' roll.

| May 7, 2015

Good gags, great performances and a spectacular soundtrack rescue an otherwise average coming-of-age drama.

| Original Score: 6.8/10 | May 4, 2015

Spike Island has plenty of feckless, disorganised charm.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 4, 2015

The film has an engagingly zippy and colorful visual style, evoking the splashy Summer of Love motifs around the Roses, with allusions to their music videos and paint-splattered, Jackson Pollock-esque sleeve artwork.

| May 4, 2015

The heady whirl of the Roses' first album played loud is a treat -- the only one.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 4, 2015

[The Stone Roses'] debut long player is one of the few rock albums that might justly be assessed all killer, no filler; Whitecross and Coghill's sincerely intended love letter to the era, not so much.

| May 4, 2015

[Director Whitecross has an] uncanny visual ability with music sequences as the film joyously skips through a pitch-perfect Madchester soundtrack.

Full Review | May 4, 2015

The filmmakers botch the story with a fragmented script and harshly edited scenes that prevent us from properly engaging with anything that happens.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 27, 2013

The piece as a whole gets bogged down in rites-of-passage cliches and, ultimately, seems out of time.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 22, 2013

Whitecross clearly has both an eye and ear for the rarefied nuances of pop culture ...

| Jun 22, 2013

Incident after incident might be prefaced with the dread phrase "one time we took drugs and then . . ."

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 21, 2013

There's a terrific blast of nostalgia in this finely crafted film, which will probably make it a hit for Stone Roses fans, but it's so jaggedly edited that the plot is almost impenetrable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 21, 2013

It's a likable, amiable movie, and a nice reminder of the roaring 90s.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 20, 2013

Sniff all you like, but Spike Island smells of nothing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 20, 2013

It's a bit ramshackle but good fun and enjoyably nostalgic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 20, 2013

Stylishly shot and features an expectedly strong soundtrack, but the script feels contrived and the clichd voiceover is rather annoying.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 19, 2013