“One of the most unusual and strangely charming films to grace Hot Docs in years.”

“A glorious collision of documentary cinema, automotive carnage, and song and dance numbers … Combines elements of Greek tragedy, Kubrickian lushness, and the archetypal Hero’s Journey to reveal the true cost of following one’s muse … Imbued with the very things it examines - ambition, glory, and finally, the desire for greatness”

4.5/5 Stars / “A film that takes two totally disparate cultural moments in Canadian history and makes them equally entertaining, enthralling and thought provoking ... A captivating look at the limits of creativity and those who choose to fly right past them.”

“It’s hard to know whose ambition is most audacious / outrageous: Canadian stuntman Ken Carter’s, or composer and double bassist Mark Haney’s, or director John Bolton’s … Part documentary, part re-enactment, part music video, the film is a bizarre, wild, amazing ride.”

“The hippest Canadian doc in years … An operatic ode to creative risk-taking that throws caution to the wind.”

“A performance film of the strangest kind that you really must see.”

5/5 Stars / NNNNN / “Part long-form music video, part archival documentary, it’s experimental and conventional at the same time: a concept movie about a concept album. It’s delightful.”

“John Bolton brings the WTF factor to Hot Docs with the bizarre, ambitious, and ridiculously entertaining Aim For The Roses … Stunning … Comparisons to Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act Of Killing are both inevitable and warranted for the film’s ingeniously playful approach to documentary form, but there has never been a documentary quite like Aim For The Roses … Fueled by an electrifying musical score, and possibly the first dramatic chorus ever in a documentary … The wildest, craziest, and smartest doc in years.”

“A genre-defying musical docudrama that’s both fascinating and disturbing … A creative intersection of the grave and the absurd, the human and the superhuman.”

“Maybe the most peculiar film to premiere at Hot Docs this year … Inspired lunacy … Has to be seen and heard and experienced to be believed ... A multi-level meta-musical about one man’s passion that becomes another man’s pet project.”

“One of the weirdest, artsiest and most oddly uplifting films at Hot Docs.”

“Stretches the limits of documentary storytelling … There is a poetic absurdity at the heart of John Bolton's new ‘musical docudrama’ that is nicely summed up by its title: it implies something beautiful and delicate, but the reality is wilder and more dangerous.”

4 Stars - “It’s like nothing you’ve seen before … Utterly entertaining and unpredictable.”

“A different kind of storytelling … Uniquely entertaining.”

“A gonzo musical docudrama that's truly one for the ages, a splendid, defiant ode to art, arcana, and the spirit of adventure.”

“A fascinating chronicle … A one-of-a-kind documentary.”

“I don’t disagree with the sentiment that it sounds stupid, but the final result is one of the most exciting, most unusual documentaries I have ever seen … Takes inspiration from everything from The Cremaster Cycle to Evel Knievel movies to All That Jazz … A work that is deeply conflicted in what it wants to be – a clash between high art and low art – and therein lies its brilliance.”