Taking Woodstock

R

Released Aug 28, 2009

2 hr. 0 min.

Comedy

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

48%

183 Reviews

Tomatometer

47%

250,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) divides his time between Greenwich Village and the upstate ramshackle motel, El Monaco, of his Old World parents. When the proposed venue for the upcoming Woodstock concert falls through, Elliot steps in and plays a pivotal role in the generation-defining event by helping organizers secure Max Yasgur's nearby farm for the festival and offering the El Monaco as the home base.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Fandango at Home

Premiered Apr 02

Buy Now

Fandango at Home

Prime Video

Apple TV

Rent Taking Woodstock on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Critics Consensus

Featuring numerous 60s-era clichés, but little of the musical magic that highlighted the famous festival, Taking Woodstock is a breezy but underwhelming portrayal.

Read Critics Reviews

Ana Victoria G

This movie to me feels like a nostalgic and sweet retrospective from Elliot's memories. I also liked the rhythm of the storyline resembling the feeling of being at a festival where it begins slowly and not expected, then it picks up quickly and exciting, ending with the satisfaction of everything trying to get in place after all and realizing that something changed in a positive way. It felt effortless to me, framed like the music experience that opened the door for more of these events but not in a documentary style, rather from the personal experience of one person.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/17/23

Full Review

dave s

Taking Woodstock is a bit of a puzzling and disappointing entry in Ang Lee's impressive filmography. Set in upstate New York in 1969, Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) returns home to help his parents manage their rundown rural motel. Before you can say ‘groovy', Elliot becomes instrumental in bringing the Woodstock music festival to Max Yasgur's (Eugene Levy) farm, saving the family business and alienating himself from the town-folk. Despite its lofty ambitions, the movie is plagued by scenes that run far too long (Elliot dropping acid), characters that exist only to be quirky (the trans security guard and the annoying, barn-dwelling Earthlight Players, etc.), and scenes that serve no purpose. Billed as a comedy, there are few, if any, laughs and none of the film feels like it's genuinely 1969. Martin is solid in the lead role and Jonathan Groff is convincing as the iconic organizer Michael Lang, but the rest of the movie is reminiscent of Woodstock's infamous brown acid – it's just a bad trip.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

david l

Taking Woodstock is one of Ang Lee's weakest efforts. While the breeziness and the technical aspects as well as the atmosphere did achieve transporting you to its time period, the movie is otherwise pointless, slow, overlong and lacking true dramatic heft. The characterization and acting are also not great.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

To be honest I actually enjoyed this movie . I guess the hate is because it didn’t focus that much on the music itself but more the organization of the festival but it was still neat to see and sent me down a Woodstock wormhole 3.5

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/12/20

Full Review

Audience Member

I liked this movie so much that I bought the book.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The best thing about this movie is that it is visually compelling and conveys a vivid sense of place. Aside from that, it's rather weak. The character of the mother and father are such extreme stereotypes that they are impossible to take seriously. One doesn't learn anything for viewing them or their interactions with the other characters. I'm actually astounded that the screenwriter, who must have worked so hard on other aspects of the screenplay, allowed himself to settle for these two cardboard cutouts (and they are such prominent characters, too). Like many so-called "indie" films of the last ten years, the film is multiclimactic, meaning that it chooses not to have a single, compelling narrative arc (unfortunately, many writers now consider that old fashioned), but, rather, once the setting and the premise have been established, the film just rambles like a country road winding through the hills. There are at least three different moments that could be considered "turning points." This is also a characteristic of these recent "indie" films: they throw "turning points" at you so often (more than once is risky) that you lose sense of how important they actually are. (The editors try to compensate for this by using dramatic music to tell you how you¿re supposed to be feeling.) I guess the new generation of writers feel that these characteristics are liberating. But I think they make for boring, indecisive, pompous, forgettable films. After seeing "Taking Woodstock," I had the same feeling I had after seeing "Where the Wild Things Are" and nearly every film by Wes Anderson: first, that I'd been served a lot of sauce with no spaghetti , and second, on the following day, I didn't think about the film for one second. No scene stuck in my mind, nor line of dialog; and I felt no desire to talk about or see the film ever again.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Ang Lee

Director

Demetri Martin

Elliot Tiber

Imelda Staunton

Sonia Teichberg

Emile Hirsch

Billy

Liev Schreiber

Vilma

Eugene Levy

Max Yasgur

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

100%

84%

Outrageous!

93%

74%

The Kids Are All Right

55%

63%

Happy Endings

58%

80%

Breakfast on Pluto

77%

83%

Transamerica

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock – RT Interview

Five Favourite Films with Ang Lee

Critics Consensus: Guess Halloween 2‘s Tomatometer!

View more photos

David Ansen

Newsweek

Some will call his Woodstock naive, but that's what he intends: the movie is a sweet, anecdotal, comic embrace, a gentle reminder that it was once possible to overcome the cynicism of the times and believe that "the flow" leads in a benign direction.

Feb 6, 2018

Full Review

Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Rated: B-

Feb 18, 2012

Full Review

Hank Sartin

Time Out

Rated: 2/5

Nov 18, 2011

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock is like having a backstage pass to the greatest concert in the world, but then you never see the music because you got lost on the way to the stage. What a bummer.

Rated: 2/4

Sep 4, 2023

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Visually arresting and at least appears historically accurate, if not particularly involving.

Rated: 2.5/4.0

Sep 25, 2020

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

Ang Lee and his writing/producing partner James Schamus gently build the bitter family comedy beats into an exploration of the forces that brought so many different sorts of people to an illusion of oneness.

Jun 18, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

In the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) divides his time between Greenwich Village and the upstate ramshackle motel, El Monaco, of his Old World parents. When the proposed venue for the upcoming Woodstock concert falls through, Elliot steps in and plays a pivotal role in the generation-defining event by helping organizers secure Max Yasgur's nearby farm for the festival and offering the El Monaco as the home base.

Director: Ang Lee
Executive Producer: Michael Hausman
Screenwriter: James Schamus
Distributor: Focus Features
Production Co: Focus Features
Rating: R (Graphic Nudity|Drug Use|Language|Some Sexual Content)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 28, 2009, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.4M

Most Popular at Home Now