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Sid & Nancy [Blu-ray]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Alex Cox's riveting biopic tells the bleak, heroin-drenched story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his disturbed American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Gary Oldman delivers a bravura performance as Sid, matched by Chloe Webb's grating, clearly unhinged Nancy. The two lovers' childlike tenderness with each other contrasts sharply with their bleak, violent nihilism, and while the script implies that Nancy's death was accidental, the line between intention and accident is deliberately blurred. By turns romantic and horrific, SID & NANCY is often grueling to watch, but always compelling.

This followup to Cox's cult hit REPO MAN was another critical success, showing that the director was as comfortable with reality-based material as with the satirical fantasy of his first feature. His romantic vision draws us in while throwing us back in time to London and New York at the inception of the drug-laden British punk era. The film's dreamlike style and a hypnotic score dramatize the schism between Sid and Nancy's world and the world around them--and the inevitable horror when those worlds collide.
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Credits

Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, Drew Schofield
Critic Reviews

"...One of the most original films of the '80s, an unlikely mix of black comedy and realistic tragedy..." -- Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly
"...A true romance..." - Recommended
Premiere
"...A sordid, intentionally ugly and sometimes unexpectedly beautiful film....Played vividly by [Oldman and Webb]..."
New York Times
"...Ghastly but funny..."
Film Comment
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he performances, especially Oldman's bravura turn stave off the misery, and Cox's direction is anarchic with a splash of art..."
Empire
"...This is Cox at his most accessible and consistent..."
Total Film
"...They're a fabulous disaster, one of the screen's sickest romances..."
Rolling Stone
"[T]he film is an unsparing -- and also touching -- account of their destructive relationship."
Sight and Sound