I know everyone likes watching movies where young, hip, famous people die in gritty ways, and I'd be lying if I said that my own morbid curiosity didn't occasionally take me in the direction of movies like Sid & Nancy. Did people of the punk persuasion in the late 70s really all have speech impediments? because that's what this movie led me to believe. Gary Oldman played the part of Sid Vicious sounding drunk, toothless and mentally challenged--in other words, probably fairly accurate. Chloe Webb's constant hoarse shriek was capable of sucking all the sympathy out of her character that when she was stabbed, I couldn't help but think, "well, at least she won't yell anymore." The worst part of the movie was Sid's performance of "My Way." I suppose that's a subjective comment--I never could get into the Sex Pistols at all, let alone solo Sid. At least I was able to press fast forward.
While it was still your typical biopic, it was refreshing in the fact that neither Sid nor Nancy were glorified in any way. They were portrayed as spoiled, hedonistic, and none too bright. There was no inkling of the misunderstood genius character that plagues these sorts of movies. I felt sorry for them, I'll admit, even Nancy and her shriek, because of the way the characters were essentially responsible for their own destruction, and too dumb and strung out to see it coming.
While it was still your typical biopic, it was refreshing in the fact that neither Sid nor Nancy were glorified in any way. They were portrayed as spoiled, hedonistic, and none too bright. There was no inkling of the misunderstood genius character that plagues these sorts of movies. I felt sorry for them, I'll admit, even Nancy and her shriek, because of the way the characters were essentially responsible for their own destruction, and too dumb and strung out to see it coming.