Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché

More than a journeyman rockumentary, “Poly Styrene” is a thoughtfully finessed filial reckoning: a daughter’s journey toward understanding her mother as a young artist and as a young woman of color.

This is not a banal or mundane fake-objective music history doc: it's an almost real-time chronicle of a daughter coming to grips with a mother's legacy.

Unique and affecting...

“‘Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché’ is not a critical deconstruction of X-Ray Spex’s music, but enough time is spent and enough awesome performance footage is included to send newcomers in search of ‘Germfree Adolescents’ (1978) and more.”