Reviews by Kevin Templeton
Road Movie (USA, 1996,
90 min.) is R.E.M.'s latest foray into the visual media front
and is a well-crafted concert film capturing the last remaining
nights -- at the Omni in Athens, Georgia -- of the band's ill-fated
"Monster" tour. Directed by Peter Care, whose past clients
include Killing Joke and New Order, Road Movie documents
the entirety of the modern-day arena-rock experience, complete
with dizzying effects, neo-punk camera angles and a let-the-music-do-the-talking
premise. I'm sure many cinema-goers thought as I did that perhaps
some token "road" footage (backstage or tour life abstractions)
would be included -- it is called Road Movie, after
all -- but this wasn't the case. It's kinda weird sitting in a
movie theatre watching straight concert footage, but what captivating
footage it was!
Arguably the best band in rock today, R.E.M. maintain incredibly solid stage presence through-out Road Movie, which is impressive considering how little they've toured during the latter years of their career. Frontman Michael Stipe, fitting somewhere between the self-pretence of Bono and the self-pity of Eddie Vedder, is his usual zealous self, singing and posing his way through cuts like "Crush with Eyeliner" and "The Wake-up Bomb," as the the organic "Let Me In" and the band's universal song of pain, "Everybody Hurts." Every musical angle is covered, and the film takes great care (oops) in providing the viewer with every perspective throughout the arena, as well. Sonic drama aplenty, Road Movie is also now available on video and I definitely recommend it to any R.E.M. fan, especially the ones who didn't catch the band a couple summers back at the Coliseum. Two thumbs up.
Summer Cannibals (USA, 1996, 4 min.) ran as a short film previous to the R.E.M. feature. Directed by Robert Frank, this Patti Smith video/song, filmed in black and white, starkly portrays Smith as the aged, charismatic and barefoot songstress whose return to the rock 'n roll jungle was received with abundant critical aclaim throughout much of '96. Strange and wonderful.
Hype! (USA, 1995, 84 min.)
opens up with the telling images of lush Northwest U.S. forests
turning into clearcut graveyards, with the stripped logs subsequently
being driven from the region on the backs of logging trucks headed...
elsewhere. No, this isn't an environmental documentary on the
destruction of West Coast rainforests; rather, Hype! attempts
to examine the cause and effect of the Seattle (music) scene marketing
frenzy, with respected grunge guru/producer Jack Endino and photographer
Charles Peterson rendering much of the film's prognosis into the
over-exposure and exploitation of the Seattle musical aesthetic
throughout the early 90's.
With considerable emphasis put on many of the region's punkier grunge bands (The Supersuckers, Fastbacks, Seaweed), Hype! clutters many of its interviews and performances (some of which come across as rather contrived "live" situations) together in a haphazard, fanzine-like montage, making the film's inner surface difficult to penetrate at times. Especially confusing was the afterthought approach given to the tragedies suffered throughout the Northwest music circles (Andrew Wood, Mia Zapata, Kurt Cobain, etc). What Hype! does succeed in translating is its accurate portrayal of the music as strictly a marketing commodity, or product-for-product's-sake. That is a given. But don't expect the film to wander from its course to explain the ripple effects of said exploitation. A tragic flaw, perhaps. One thumb up.
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