Performance.
Reception

Performance. (1970)

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External reception

6.7
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 13,750 votes
7.0/10 1,216 votes Synced 2026-08-04
6.7/10 12,321 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 6.3/10 8 votes Synced 2026-08-03
Critics 6.9/10 Synced 2026-08-03
Audience 7.8/10 Synced 2026-08-03
Critics 8.1/10 Synced 2026-08-03
6.8/10 205 votes Synced 2026-09-18

External reviews

Jonathan Crocker · BBC 100.00/100.00

Uncorked in 1970, it's a shocking crime thriller, a time-capsule of Swinging 60s London and a fizzy intellectual headtrip all whisked into one astonishing film.

synced 2026-08-03
Staff (Not Credited) · Total Film 100.00/100.00

Fuelled by Cammell's whacked-out erudition and lensed with tyro brilliance by Roeg, this hallucinogenic deconstruction of identity writhes with sex, substances, ultraviolence and good ol' rock'n'roll.

synced 2026-08-03
Keith Phipps · The Dissolve 90.00/100.00

Co-directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg—the latter then a top-rank cinematographer making his directorial debut—it begins as a nasty slice of British underworld life, and ends as a psychedelic excursion into insanity.

synced 2026-08-03
Kim Newman · Empire 80.00/100.00

After Ned Kelly, Jagger needed a hit and Performance was it. Although playing a rock star probably wasn't the greatest challenge, he more than holds his own against Fox in a psychedelic classic.

synced 2026-08-03
Staff (Not Credited) · Time Out 80.00/100.00

Roeg's debut as a director is a virtuoso juggling act which manipulates its visual and verbal imagery so cunningly that the borderline between reality and fantasy is gradually eliminated.

synced 2026-08-03
Roger Ebert · Chicago Sun-Times 63.00/100.00

Performance is a bizarre, disconnected attempt to link the inhabitants of two kinds of London underworlds: pop stars and gangsters. It isn’t altogether successful, largely because it tries too hard and doesn’t pace itself to let its effects sink in.

synced 2026-08-03
David Sterritt · Christian Science Monitor 75.00/100.00

Distinguished less by its elements of melodrama and psychodrama than by its intense acting and the vivid immediacy of Levring's powerful imagery.

synced 2026-08-24

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