65
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Even when the narrative strays or lingers a few moments too long, it is Kier that reels it back in. Ultimately, Swan Song succeeds and proves that fabulousness has no expiration date.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyWhat's most notable about Todd Stephens' heartfelt salute to a real-life local legend is that the campiness of its outrageous plot becomes secondary to the soulful poignancy.
- 75IndieWireRyan LattanzioIndieWireRyan LattanzioKier gets the role of his lifetime as a fabulously snarky, acerbic, long-retired hairdresser in Todd Stephens’ Swan Song, a dark comedy that totters to and fro the campy and the melancholic with wincing laughs and real pain.
- 75Slant MagazineMark HansonSlant MagazineMark HansonThe disconnect between the realities of different generations of gay men is one of Swan Song’s most unexpectedly joyful through lines.
- 75The A.V. ClubKatie RifeThe A.V. ClubKatie RifeSwan Song can be clumsy and sentimental at times, but that’s sometimes the cost of earnestness.
- 70Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonWriter-director Todd Stephens can allow quirkiness to overwhelm the thin narrative, but the story’s emotional underpinnings guide the film past its occasional rough spots.
- 67The PlaylistJason BaileyThe PlaylistJason BaileyThe pacing is wobbly – it runs a too-flabby 105 minutes – and some of the filmmaking is pretty rickety . . . . But Swan Song is about its performers, and they shine.
- 60VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeKier isn’t panhandling for laughs by playing some tired gay stereotype. There’s a heart-on-his-sleeve sincerity to the performance that’s better than the material merits, for Stephens has written an earnest but anemic script.
- 25San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThe film is kindly and well-intended, but it’s also sentimental and lifeless. Swan Song is a rare movie without a single good scene.