Release Fuck was shown for the first time on November 7, 2005, at the
American Film Institute Film Festival at the ArcLight Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. On March 10, 2006, interest increased after the opening night of the 20th
South by Southwest Film Festival in
Austin, Texas. At the 30th
Cleveland International Film Festival, it sold out two screenings (which were standing-room only events).
Fuck was featured on March 31 and April 2, 2006, at the
Florida Film Festival. It had its Washington, D.C. premiere in June 2006,
Fuck opened in Los Angeles on August 23, 2006, and in New York on November 10. It made its Canadian debut at the 2006
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and began regular showings at the
Bloor Cinema on December 1. The documentary began screening at the Century Centre Cinema in Chicago on November 17, 2006.
Fuck had two screenings in April 2007 during the
Hong Kong International Film Festival in
Tsim Sha Tsui.|alt=Christopher Fairman
Fuck received mixed reviews. The
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating with an average rating of 5.8/10 based on 72 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "A documentary that sets out to explore a lingual taboo but can't escape its own naughty posturing." At
Metacritic, which assigns a weighted-mean rating from 0–100 based on reviews by film critics, the film has a rating score of 58 based on 23 reviews (a mixed, or average, film). The American Film Institute wrote, "Ultimately,
Fuck is a movie about free speech ... Freedom of expression must extend to words that offend. Love it or hate it, fuck is here to stay". Jack Garner of the
Democrat and Chronicle gave the film a rating of 8 out of 10, concluding that he was pleasantly surprised at the documentary's entertainment value. In
The Boston Globe Wesley Morris commented that the director's flippant style was beneficial, enabling him to make serious educational points to the audience. Sally Foster of
Film Threat said that the crux of the film was the debate about freedom of speech, and that the film was funny and thought-provoking. According to Glenn Garvin of
The Miami Herald, the film was an expansive merging of perspectives from politics, history and culture. Steve Schneider reviewed the film for the
Orlando Weekly, comparing it to an academic thesis despite its repeated use of
off-color humor. Noel Murray of
The A.V. Club gave the film a grade of B-minus, Karl French wrote in a review for the
Financial Times that the documentary was unique and reasonably entertaining.
Mick LaSalle wrote in the
San Francisco Chronicle that the commentators seemed monotonous and formulaic in debating freedom of speech, and criticized the film's repetition of the word "fuck". Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, criticizing its lack of originality. In a review for
Empire magazine, David Parkinson also gave the film a rating of two out of five stars and was frustrated that arguments by the director seemed guarded; he said that the film's scope was not comedic, amusing or provoking enough. A critical review by Noah Sanders of
The Stranger concluded that the film was watchable and amusing, but poorly edited and organized. The
St. Paul Pioneer Press criticized the film's length, which was echoed by
The Washington Post, the
Deseret News,
The Herald and the
New York Daily News. In a review for the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White gave the film a grade C, calling it a dull compilation of childish observations and a failed attempt to spark a discussion about freedom of speech. Mike Pinsky of
DVD Verdict concluded that the film's main arguments were achieved by the beginning of the documentary, and criticized its lack of subsequent structure and light tone overall. and it aired on the
Documentary Channel on May 28, 2011. The DVD for
Fuck was released by THINKFilm on February 13, 2007, and a United Kingdom DVD edition was released in 2009. For the DVDs, THINKFilm remastered the video for
Fuck; it was optimized for home viewing with 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer to a 16:9 anamorphic full-frame presentation and Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 audio. Special features include a
commentary track by Steve Anderson, interviews with Anderson and Bill Plympton, the film's
theatrical trailer, a gallery for the introductory trailers, deleted scenes and interviews with Hunter S. Thompson and Tera Patrick. The disc includes an optional on-screen counter, giving viewers a running total of utterances (and appearances) of the word "fuck" during play.
Impact Fuck has been a resource for several university courses. Christopher M. Fairman discussed the documentary in his article, "Fuck", published in February 2007 in the
Cardozo Law Review. Fairman cited Anderson's decision to call his film
Fuck and the marketing problems this entailed, He told the
Philadelphia Daily News that before showing the documentary, he was unaware that it contained the clip showing sexual intercourse. ==See also==