In January 2017, it was Neon had acquired North American distribution rights to the film in a bidding war that also included Amazon Studios, Lionsgate and Miramax.[3] However, in December 2017, the film was revealed to be part of Netflix's 2018 film slate.[4]
Critical reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 30 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Roxanne Roxanne belatedly honors its subject with a gripping character-driven biopic that serves as a primer for a trailblazing career while telling an often tragic story."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on ten critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6]
On RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen gave the film 2 stars. Comparing the movie to David O. Russell's Joy, he said: "Like Joy, this story feels overwhelmingly like the writer/director's version of their subject's lives, rendering Roxanne Roxanne a portrait that's as expressive as it is incomplete."[7]
