"In the Court of the Crimson King is really about as good as rock documentaries get"
“The film is angular and abrasive, exacting and playful, extremely funny and achingly melancholy.”
“The great thing about this thoughtful, intimate portrait of them is that one doesn’t even need to like their music all that much to find this film by director Toby Amies utterly enthralling. Somehow it ends up being about a lot more than just King Crimson.”
“Robert Fripp forms the intense, magnetic centre of a film that is less a traditional music documentary, more a gripping psychological case study.”
“By turns comical and melancholy, it may be the most revealing film about working life in a band since Spinal Tap.”
"This elegant, intimate, funny and surprisingly moving film covers every aspect of the group — from its thorny interpersonal history to the almost religious loyalty it inspires in fans — and lays out exactly what makes Crimson such a singular and enduring musical force."
"There’s a deft balancing act in the film between sandpaper dry humour and genuine emotional weight, with themes of time, death and mortality all ever-present throughout."
“A film about King Crimson and all its weirdness might be one of the finest rock documentaries ever made.”
“One of the complaints people have about King Crimson’s music is that it’s cerebral, rather than emotional, in nature. Despite that argument, In the Court of the Crimson King exposes the music’s heart.”
“In the Court of the Crimson King holds the kind of twofold appeal that such docs too rarely muster: you come for the fascinating and touching moments that KC’s hardcore fandom will eat up, but you stay for a more universal, inspirational study of what it is to work or dream to work as an artist.”
"In the Court of the Crimson King is astonishingly moving as it probes intangible concepts like pursuit of perfection and the very meaning of music itself—playing it, listening to it, and ageing with it."
“In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 is the story about one of rock’s greatest bands understanding itself and its place in time. But it’s also a film about you and me.”
Mojo Review
