Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Sep 2, 2024 FIVE STARS

Director Ethan Hawke does the memory of Blues singer/songwriter Blaze Foley justice in this transfixing biopic. The life of a troubadour is always a difficult one. Blaze Foley was up to the challenge.

Go to Full Review

Ryan McQuade InSession Film Apr 4, 2024 B+

Blaze is a very unique story and experience and proves that Ethan Hawke doesn’t just have to act in order to impress audiences.

Go to Full Review

M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut Aug 16, 2022 4.5/5

Blaze is wonderfully rich, heartbreakingly real, and told with overwhelming intimacy. Ben Dickey’s portrayal of Blaze Foley is a sight to behold. Go and seek out this film!

Go to Full Review

Matt Cipolla Film Monthly Jul 25, 2020 3/5

There's a great movie in here, but Hawke hasn't quite found it.

Go to Full Review

Steven Prokopy Third Coast Review Jun 23, 2020

Even if you have no knowledge of Foley or interest in country music, Blaze will burrow deep into your heart and mind, and linger there like a catchy song.

Go to Full Review

Javier Ocaña El Pais (Spain) May 26, 2019

More than a biography about a cursed aura composer and performer, Blaze is a love song to the country & western. [Full Review in Spanish]

Go to Full Review

Paula Arantzazu Ruiz Cinemanía (Spain) May 23, 2019 4/5

What is surprising - and exciting - is the sensitivity with which Hawke has approached this difficult character. [Full review in Spanish]

Go to Full Review

Preston Barta Denton Record-Chronicle Mar 30, 2019 4.5/5

Hawke pieces together an impressive and thought-provoking tribute with a Texas-sized heart and the kind of performances that awards are made for. Even when you know what's coming, Blaze haunts you like a classic country song.

Go to Full Review

Filipe Freitas Always Good Movies Feb 7, 2019 3.5/5

It's a lengthy, inebriating, and casually funny experience that didn't fall into the usual traps of biographical films.

Go to Full Review

Rhys Handley One Room With A View Feb 6, 2019 5/5

An affectionate, honest portrait that interrogates our need to deify dead icons, while carving out a space in music history long left vacant for Foley to fill.

Go to Full Review

Chris Nashawaty Entertainment Weekly Dec 26, 2018 B+

Dickey looks like a big, shaggy dog with a wounded paw who's been left out in the rain overnight. And he's a real revelation.

Go to Full Review

Tim Grierson Screen International Dec 26, 2018

A songwriter making his major acting debut, Dickey captures the burly, vulnerable quality of Foley's lyrics and vocal delivery, creating a palpable sense that the songs were excavated from the darkest corners of his soul.

Go to Full Review

Don Kaye Den of Geek Dec 26, 2018 3.5/5

Even as a viewer not knowing much about Foley, watching Dickey makes one feel that you are watching the actual man -- he's that natural in the role.

Go to Full Review

Andrew Parker The Gate Dec 17, 2018 7.5/10

A quietly mournful and gently celebratory look at a boisterous, but underrated personality, Ethan Hawke's biopic Blaze is a humane approach to creating iconography organically and empathetically.

Go to Full Review

Chris Knight National Post Dec 14, 2018 4.5/5

Beautifully shot, this low-key life story feels at times like you're flipping through an old album, crammed with artfully arranged memories and aphorisms.

Go to Full Review

Barry Hertz Globe and Mail Dec 14, 2018 3/4

Hawke is more fascinated with passion than profile. And here, that's more than enough.

Go to Full Review

Norman Wilner NOW Toronto Dec 12, 2018 4/5

Blaze might be telling a story we've seen before, but it does so from an angle that offers a few surprises.

Go to Full Review

Jim Slotek Original Cin Dec 11, 2018 C-plus

People who knew him said he gave off so much menace, he scared bikers. This is a film about a big drunk lovable, doomed song-writing Teddy bear who happens to be named Blaze Foley.

Go to Full Review

Andrew Wyatt The Lens Dec 7, 2018 B

Blaze's methods are more poetic than proclamatory, focused primarily on transforming the raw facts of Blaze Foley's life into an elliptical and heartsick dive bar epic.

Go to Full Review

Joey Magidson The Hollywood News Nov 12, 2018 3/4

If you love music, this flick is for you. Armed with Dickey's larger than life turn as Blaze Foley, Hawke makes this a fascinating character study.

Go to Full Review