Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock is like having a backstage pass to the greatest concert in the world, but then you never see the music because you got lost on the way to the stage. What a bummer.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 4, 2023

Visually arresting and at least appears historically accurate, if not particularly involving.

| Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 25, 2020

Ang Lee and his writing/producing partner James Schamus gently build the bitter family comedy beats into an exploration of the forces that brought so many different sorts of people to an illusion of oneness.

| Jun 18, 2020

Taking Woodstock simply doesn't capture the spirit of a very spirited time.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 5, 2018

Some will call his Woodstock naive, but that's what he intends: the movie is a sweet, anecdotal, comic embrace, a gentle reminder that it was once possible to overcome the cynicism of the times and believe that "the flow" leads in a benign direction.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2018

At no point did I feel like I was at Woodstock and surely that was the whole point.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 21, 2014

Some colorful character turns cannot make up for the charisma void at the center that is Martin.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 25, 2014

| Original Score: B- | Feb 18, 2012

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Does a great job of recreating the time, place and people that came together to make something magical in the middle of the summer of 1969.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 29, 2011

A valentine to America.

| Aug 29, 2011

A ham-handed attempt to indicate the oncoming tragedy of Altamont ends the film with a touch of contrivance, but it's the only sour note in an otherwise flawless film.

| Feb 1, 2011

Amazing that Ang Lee can make such a listless movie about arguably one of the most high energy times in recent history.

| Jan 4, 2010

An interesting idea, but it doesn't really have much to capitalize on outside of the authentic period reproduction.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 29, 2009

Watch carefully as the film tries to ramrod too many themes, invoking split-screen technique, and see if you can identify how often self-indulgence is confused for enlightenment.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 6, 2009

Não se revela particularmente interessante ou minimamente revelador no que diz respeito à natureza de Woodstock ou do próprio protagonista.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 13, 2009

A minor work from Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee that is enjoyable but ultimately underwhelming.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 13, 2009

Achieves the highly improbable by making one of the most exciting events of the 1960s look really boring.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 13, 2009

A rare misfire for the usually reliable Lee.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 13, 2009

Taking Woodstock is entertaining, funny but also very slight film. Unlike the real Woodstock, it won't change lives or burn in the memory.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2009