Purple Rain

"Like the best musicals of the golden age, Prince’s tunes serve as the means by which his emotionally stifled character is allowed the opportunity to express his true feelings."

"Probably the flashiest album cover ever to be released as a movie."

"(Prince) just comes across as a petulant brat, rather than the symbolically tortured artist. The music, however, is divine."

"(The film's heart) only starts to really pump when Prince is up on stage: a teasing, hot amalgam of Marc Bolan, Nijinsky and the Scarlet Pimpernel, as electric as his guitar."

"A hokey but mesmerising rock-video psychodrama."

"It rides the underlying currents of its moment and renders them glorious."