The surviving Doors shouldn't hate Oliver Stone so much - his movie portrays them as a better band than this does. He made a better movie too.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | May 19, 2021

Reaffirms Jim Morrison as a rock legend, a poet in his own rite and a spiritual and sexual messiah, who opened the doors of perception for his generation and all those to follow.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 5, 2018

...it lazily recycles all the same tired myths about Jim Morrison being "like an ancient shaman," and "A rock and roll poet, dangerous and highly intelligent," that we've been reading in solipsistic '60s holdovers like Rolling Stone for the last 50 years.

| Jan 24, 2018

DiCillo's film veers perilously close to hagiography. To those not under the singer's spell, [Jim Morrison] totters precariously between the charismatic and the ludicrous.

| Mar 10, 2011

While fans of The Doors probably already know the story, this exploration of Jim Morrison's life and career is fascinating nonetheless.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 16, 2010

Not many fresh insights, but riding along with The Doors is still a good time, whether you buy into the Jim Morrison mythology or not.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 19, 2010

Barely scratches the surface of the band's enduring appeal.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 8, 2010

Documents the Doors in a fairly straightforward way, telling their story with remarkable detail but never quite getting beneath the surface.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2010

What DiCillo has settled for is a famous person solemnly intoning a Wikipedia page. Strange doesn't begin to cover it.

| Jul 7, 2010

When You're Strange offers a worshipful but insightful portrait of the group...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 6, 2010

As a first exposure to the history of The Doors I'd still recommend Oliver Stone's movie over this.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 6, 2010

This is a far better bet than Oliver Stone's ghastly Doors movie.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2010

The portrait of social change in Sixties America is sketchy but the film effectively states the case for Morrison as a charismatic, complex figure who lived fast, died young and left a lasting legacy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 5, 2010

Refocuses some attention on the strange collection of individuals whose disparate musical influences made the band sound unique, if not always good.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 5, 2010

The cumulative effect of this film is to enhance one's respect for The Doors (John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek) and to diminish the same for Morrison, whose posturing now looks like the most fatuous exhibitionism.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 2, 2010

Unlikely to light your fire, or anyone else's.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 1, 2010

Director Tom DiCillo is relatively incurious about the bands' mundane professional and romantic lives, perhaps for fear of importing an injurious Spinal Tap irony. But his film material of Jim Morrison is sensational.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 1, 2010

... the same stories and clichs of living hard and dying young

| Jul 1, 2010

While the old adage says those who remember the '60s weren't really there, When You're Strange resurrects the spirit of the decade in a way that is at once intimate and universally familiar.

Full Review | Jul 1, 2010

With dynamic sound throughout, great visual and auditory storytelling and plenty of rare footage, it is easy to see why Depp claims to be proud of this nostalgic yet relatable representation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 1, 2010