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Viewer Score

100
Viewer score based on 1 vote.

Critic Score

77
Critics' score based on 16 reviews.
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Critic Reviews

Unlike "Heathers," a satiric treatment of teen suicide, Pump Up the Volume is passionately caring. It's a howl from the heart, a relentlessly involving movie that gives a kid every reason to believe that he or she can come of age. It appreciates the pimples and pitfalls of this frightening passage, the transit commonly known as adolescence.Full Review

Rita Kempley
Washington Post

It's a celebration of free expression that treats youth like a fierce and beautiful animal, and never attempts to tame it. In Pump Up the Volume, the "why-bother" generation finds a voice, and begins to bother. [22 Aug 1990, p.47]Full Review

Joan Anderman
Boston Globe

Pump Up the Volume, in addition to presenting an engaging story, has tapped into a universal truth about rebels with causes.Full Review

James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Writer-director Allan Moyle's story about a shy high school student who galvanizes an Arizona suburb with a rebellious pirate radio show has rambunctious energy and defiant attitude.Full Review

Variety

Working within the confines of the teen-age genre film, Pump Up the Volume succeeds in sounding a surprising number of honest, heartfelt notes.Full Review

Stephen Holden
The New York Times
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