Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Iconic punk band biopic is as edgy as its music.
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Pistol
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Based on the book Lonely Boy by Steve Jones, PISTOL is a docudrama that chronicles the rise of the groundbreaking British punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Steve Jones (Tobey Wallace) is a young working class man with a troubled past who, like many his age, hates the British establishment and wants to embrace nonconformity. He also loves music and is trying to make a go of his band, which he's now renamed The Swankers, along with friends Paul Cook (Jacob Slater), Glen Matlock (Christian Lees), and Wally Nightingale (Dylan Llewellyn). But when he meets former New York Dolls manager Malcolm McLaren (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) at SEX, a provocative Kings Road clothing store that he runs with Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley), Jones' luck shifts. Under McLaren's direction, Jones becomes the band's lead guitarist, John Lydon (Anson Boon) is brought in to be lead singer, and the group is renamed the Sex Pistols. Together they become the center of a British music and cultural revolution.
Is It Any Good?
The fun, edgy, and nostalgic biopic chronicles the journey of Sex Pistols founding member and lead guitarist Steve Jones as he and his friends led the late 1970s U.K. punk rock scene. It reveals how the band chaotically rose to popularity and weathered changes (including the replacement of original bassist Glen Matlock with Sid Vicious, played by Louis Partridge) during it's nearly three-year run, while highlighting the significant role that manager Malcolm McLaren and controversial designer Vivienne Westwood played in shaping and marketing the band as a gritty artistic representative of anarchy and revolutionary action. Meanwhile, it also offers some insight into what life as part of the punk subculture was like, and showcases some of its iconic members, like then up-and-coming American singer Chrissie Hynde (Sydney Chandler) before she became the lead singer of The Pretenders, and Jordan (Maisie Williams), a character based on the real-life Jordan Mooney, one of Westwood's models and a prominent fixture in the British punk scene. Overall, Pistol presents an entertainingly high-strung narrative that shows how a group of "lost" working-class men became one of the most influential bands in music history, and how they attracted other misfits of their generation.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the British punk scene of the late 1970s. What was it a reaction to? Why is it an important movement in British history? What cultural impact does it continue to have on music and popular culture today?
How accurately does Pistol interpret the story of the Sex Pistols? What parts of it are dramatized for entertainment purposes?
TV Details
- Premiere date : May 31, 2022
- Cast : Toby Wallace , Anson Boon , Thomas Brodie-Sangster
- Network : Hulu
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : History , Arts ( Music and Sing-Along )
- Character Strengths : Perseverance , Teamwork
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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