BEFORE: Let's keep the rock music going - I don't want to wait for summer to celebrate the "Summer of Love". I seem to have put together a "coming of age" theme for the week as well. Linking is easy, since Emma Thompson from "Pirate Radio" was in the movie "Nanny McPhee" with Imelda Staunton, who appears here.
THE PLOT: A man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969.
AFTER: I was a little busy in the summer of 1969, having been born the previous October - so I can't really comment on the truthiness of this story. I'm guessing they got some things right and some things wrong, and the attempt was more to capture the essence of the Woodstock festival. (Which, of course, didn't take place in Woodstock, but in nearby Bethel, NY. I guess Woodstock just sounded cooler.)
As in last night's film, the rock proceedings are seen through the eyes of a young man, who happens to be head of the local Chamber of Commerce, and working at his parents' motel, but otherwise seems a bit directionless. We later learn that he hasn't really gotten in touch with his sexuality - about halfway through I was saying, "Is this a gay film?" But hey, no labels, man, it's all groovy. (Far out...)
Did the deal really go down with Max Yasgur this way? Did a guy accidentally use the words "Free concert" in a press conference, sparking a hippie pilgrimage to upstate NY? Does it really matter? My main complaint here is that the film can't seem to decide if it wants to be a family drama, a dry comedy, or a historical re-enactment of a famous concert. Maybe it's OK to be all three, I don't know.
However, the background of the planning, execution and clean-up proves to be a fertile ground for these little slice-of-life stories. Immigrants, hippies, straights, gays, promoters, farmers, mobsters and stoners all come together for three days of festival, and as you might imagine relationships begin and end, people become self-aware, and the world becomes a different place afterwards - that much rings true.
My other complaint is that by focusing on the atmosphere surrounding the festival, the film ends up showing very little of the concert itself - I wonder if that was the intent, or if there's performance footage of people dressed up like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix that ended up getting scrapped. I suppose it's a good lead-in if you want to watch the concert film "Woodstock" - and this film even borrowed that film's use of split-screen and multiple images.
I tried to at least stop in Woodstock for lunch on our way upstate last fall, but my wife wasn't having it. I know people who work at the Woodstock Film Festival, so I imagine I'll make it up there one day - until then I'll have to be satisfied with Comic-Con (5 days of peace, costumes and comics).
Also starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber (last seen in "Repo Men", but appearing here as a transvestite, don't say I didn't warn you...), Eugene Levy (last heard in "Astro Boy"), Henry Goodman (last seen in "Color Me Kubrick"), Jonathan Groff, Dan Fogler, with cameos from Richard Thomas, Paul Dano (last seen in "Fast Food Nation"), and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (last seen in "Watchmen")
RATING: 6 out of 10 Volkswagen vans
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