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Powerful

Overrated and overhyped

Just perfect...

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Director Alan G. Parker, a self-titled Sid Vicious biographer, put together this overlong, scattered pseudo-documentary about '70s British punker and ex-Sex Pistols bassist Vicious and his American girlfriend, groupie Nancy Spungen, who was found dead in 1978 in the New York City hotel room the couple shared, stabbed once with a knife after a long binge of partying and drugs. Although it's her name in the movie's title, Parker hasn't much information on Nancy Spungen--no surprise then that the primary focus here is on Vicious (which probably also aided Parker in getting financing). We do get a shot of Spungen's nice childhood house in Pennsylvania (which Parker then compares to Sid's humble beginnings) and rare interview footage of Sid and Nancy together before the stabbing and Sid's eventual heroin overdose. The rest doesn't amount to much: Sid's arrest, his release on bail of $50,000, evidence at the murder scene unexplored by the police (which Parker obviously feels vindicates Sid), and dead-end interviews with friends and hangers-on who feed on the long-held conspiracy theory that Nancy was murdered by an outsider over a drug-deal gone bad. Newspaper headlines and vintage TV news clips do not a documentary make, yet somehow Parker has managed to stretch this thing out to an interminable 100 minutes (an abbreviated version runs 89 minutes). *1/2 from ****

English author, biographer and documentary filmmaker Alan G Parker's debut documentary feature, is inspired by a letter he received from an English mother named Anne J Beverly and twenty-two years of investigation. It premiered in the United States, was shot on locations in England and America and is a UK production which was produced by producers Ben Timlett and Christine Alderson. It tells the story about a son from Lewisham, London, England and a daughter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA who spent a fatal night at a hotel called the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, U.S. in early October 1978. Precisely and engagingly directed by English filmmaker Alan G Parker, this finely paced documentary which is narrated by UK radio program director Tony Hertz and from multiple viewpoints, draws a multifaceted, involving and somewhat subjective portrayal of an unsolved late 20th century American murder case which was closed after the death of the prime suspect in 1979, and of a young man and woman who became far more useful to the world than the word Punk would imply considering, without moralizing, those who profited from their passing. Through interviews with Punk rockers, friends of Sid, friends of Nancy, a filmmaker, a photographer, former members of the Sex Pistols (1975-1978), Sex Pistols' manager, a biographer and people who either knew of or had met Sid and Nancy, this narrative-driven and interview-driven story from the late 2000s about anarchism and a gravitating requiem for living up to an unattainable myth which is a re-examining and investigative attempt to prove the innocence of a prolific member of an historical late 1970s Punk rock band which was formed in London, England during a time when more than a million people were unemployed, former politician Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) became leader of the Tory Party and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was initiated, comes up with a plausible theory regarding what actually happened thirty-six years ago at hotel room 100 where a woman in her early twenties died from a knife wound in her abdomen and her boyfriend was arrested by the New York Police Department. This biographical, historic, cautionary and humanly humorous remembrance of a disenchanting temporary romance between a punk rocker, performer, friend and fatherless only child and a groupie, sister and friend who nearly died after her birth which stands as an underlined warning and which densely examines the history of Punk and the personalities of Sid Vicious (1957-1979) and Nancy Spungen (1958-1978) through the stories of some of the people who witnessed their lives, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle continuity, bilateral stories and use of music, animation and archival footage. An informative, straightforward and vindicating documentary feature.

This film is structured around the question of who killed Nancy Spungen, companion to Sid Vicious. The weakness of the film is that the filmmakers have not structured the film in a rigorous way to make their case questioning the conventional wisdom on the matter.The actual effect of this lack of strict focus, is paradoxically, a masterpiece in capturing the character and spirit of both the people involved, and of the music scene that they came from.Punk was, and is, purposely confrontational, and many punk documentaries are effectively impaled on these clashes; stuck on the 'spikes' of punk, and never really capturing a complete image of either the people or the scene. In setting out to chronicle a death, this film has actually captured that life.It would probably be foolish to imagine that any film can actually tell you all about punk; who has seen a documentary that actually even had all of the important bands in it? This film is not all of punk by any means, but it is one of the best documentaries to have come out of it, and that is what really matters.If you are focused on the film from the perspective of the mystery however, this film is still a great success, at least if you would like to make up your own mind. Most films of this sort would have the filmmaker smacking away with remark after remark, all up and down the length of the film, like a cook tenderizing a piece of meat. In this case, it seems like such remarks had to be pasted onto the end of the film, but since both sides of the evidence are presented relatively naturally along the course of the film, the effect is to create overall, an unusually unbiased presentation. This documentary is rough around the edges, but it is great.

On October 12th 1978, Nancy Spungen was found dead, slumped against the bathroom wall of room 100 in the Chelsea Hotel, New York City. Nancy was the girlfriend of Sex Pistols base guitarist, Sid Vicious. Barely coherent from drug abuse and other excess', and with a history of violence and unruly behaviour, Vicious was quickly charged with the killing and then promptly died of a drug overdose before it went to trial........Case closed, police happy, but many knew that there was far more to tell.......Director of this piece is one Alan G Parker, a self confessed punk rock fan and a man who has made something of a living out of writing about punk and Sid Vicious in particular. Alan is the same age as myself, someone who was in the first year of senior school when punk rock exploded on to the British public, and just like me, it impacted to the point that we still wear our punk ethos like a badge of belief more than honour. Does that make him biased for finally presenting facts about the events surrounding Nancy's death? Does it make me foolish or in biased league with him for trumpeting this picture? All I can personally say is that many many punks from back in the day have always been baffled as to why no in-depth investigation was forthcoming after Vicious left the mortal coil and thus closed the Nancy Spungen case. Here, finally you are presented with evidence and interviews that will at least give you the chance to make an informed decision. Rest assured, tho, that I'm fully aware that Sid may well still have done it, but presented with the facts, both medically, and incredibly by unreleased police evidence, it appears unlikely......but that's just me of course!If many outside of the punk rock circles actually care is another thing? But if you are reading this then one would like to think you have an interest in the subject at the very least. Already the first reviews on IMDb point to the film being amateurish, hello! Do you know what the punk mantra is? No sane person who knows their onions with British punk rock could claim Vicious was a hero, we all know he was limited in ability, prone to cruelty, and by and large a cretinous {acting} persona. He however holds a place in many people's hearts as the guy who defined a look, with the iconography being hard {impossible} to ignore. Whilst the fact that with his, and Nancy's death, actually signalling the end of real punk rock as many of us knew it, any story involving him is obviously of special interest to the discerning British punk rocker.It's just nice to see a film prepared to show what a dope he was whilst simultaneously giving credence to us punky cover up conspiracy theorists? And then some.The film plays out more as a story of Sid and Nancy with out the gloss of a Hollywood production, in fact the subject of who actually did kill Nancy is merely a strand in an all encompassing story. Do not be fooled into thinking this is an hour and half of detective work, because it's not. We are taken thru a time line that fleshes the bones of these punk rock skeletons. Those in search of a Sex Pistols soundtrack should also be advised that it's not here, we do however get a fabulous and rich soundtrack by the likes of The Buzzcocks talented guitar man Steve Diggle, and honestly it's worth a listen.It's no Filth and The Fury, and it's far removed from the arty veneer provided by Alex Cox's wonderful, but ill portrayed, Sid and Nancy (1986). But Who Killed Nancy? is not only an essential watch for old punkers like me, but also for those who like to have a peek at the other side of the coin once it has been tossed. 9/10