76
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertWhy should anyone care about a movie about two scabrous vulgarians? Because the subject of a really good movie is sometimes not that important. It's the acting, writing, and direction that count.
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawTremendously acted by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb with exactly the right absence of sympathy, although Cox arguably loses his nerve on this score in the film’s dying moments.
- What makes the film a classic is the skill with which the leads are so believable as heroin addicts, pivoting from intense love to hatred and dope sickness, all while maintaining the couple's signature snarl.
- 80EmpireCaroline WestbrookEmpireCaroline WestbrookAlex Cox’s retelling of the Sex Pistols’ story from the point of view of Sid (Gary Oldman) and girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) works as both spirited punk biopic and tragically touching love story. It’s a hard film to watch at times, as Vicious plunges deeper into his heroin-induced slump, but told with skill and compassion, which make up for the onscreen squalor.
- 75The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsFor a while, the tension powers the film. And when it doesn’t, the lead performances by Oldman and Webb pick up the slack.
- 60Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonTime Out LondonTom HuddlestonA film that never feels remotely real, content to wallow in dead-rock-star mythology and tedious druggie indulgences.
- 60CineVueMatthew AndersonCineVueMatthew AndersonSid and Nancy rages with a vitriolic fury which eventually becomes tiresome.
- 60The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinSid and Nancy doesn't try to win its audience's sympathy in any conventional way, which is just as well, since that would have been a losing battle. But it does succeed in offering bleak, nasty and sometimes hilarious glimpses of life in the punk demimonde.
- 60Time OutTom HuddlestonTime OutTom HuddlestonThe performances are, of course, magnificent: Webb owns her largely thankless role, while Oldman snarls, spits and staggers like he means it, maaan. But we’re never given a reason to care about their characters, beyond the fact they were famous.
- 40Washington PostPaul AttanasioWashington PostPaul AttanasioThe only thing that is sustained in Sid and Nancy is a tone of clinical disinterest that leaves you asking why Cox would want to make a movie about them. By the end, you know more about Sid and Nancy than you care to, and about Alex Cox, quite a bit less than you'd like.