Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug, struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days when gang warfare was going on.
The action is clotted and murky, and Coppola obviously hasn't bothered to clarify it for the members of his cast, who wander through the film with expressions of winsome, honest befuddlement.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
A number of the images in Rumble Fish are more memorable than the film is as a whole, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
21 May 2003
fresh:
This is a movie you are likely to hate, unless you can love it for its crazy, feverish charm.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Sep 2005
rotten:
Overwrought and overthought.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
11 Dec 2007
fresh:
If Rumble Fish fails as a traditional movie about real people, it is beguiling as an exercise in hallucinatory style.