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Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy

Drama · Romance · 1986

January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.

Movie details

Sid and Nancy

“Love Kills.”

1986 Drama · Romance 1h 54m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Sid and Nancy?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Alex Cox

Written by

Alex Cox · Abbe Wool

Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman

Sid Vicious

Chloe Webb

Chloe Webb

Nancy Spungen

David Hayman

David Hayman

Malcolm McLaren

Debby Bishop

Debby Bishop

Phoebe

Andrew Schofield

Andrew Schofield

Johnny Rotten

Xander Berkeley

Xander Berkeley

Bowery Snax

Perry Benson

Perry Benson

Paul

Court is in session

Put Sid and Nancy on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.