Apr
17
Nashville Scene review
By Adam Gold
Having just posted a fairly lukewarm review of The White Stripes doc — playing tonight, at the Nashville Film Festival — I decided I’d rather end the work week (and this late-Friday blogging spree) by singing praises as opposed to saying nays. Unlike that sleepy Stripes road movie, Robert Patton-Spruill’s documentation of Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers’ quest to reunite The Kinks is fantastic. It shows tomorrow night at 9:20 p.m., and 2 p.m. on Tuesday, in Green Hills. Here’s what I had to say about it in the Scene’s film festival guide:
A document of Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers’ mission impossible to reunite The Kinks, Robert Patton-Spruill’s Do It Again is a must see for any die-hard rock ‘n’ roll fan. By telling The Kinks’ story through the eyes of a super-fan — seamlessly inter-cut with archival footage and wall-to-wall audio — the movie engrosses the viewer with a three-dimensional take on rock music, encompassing themes of stardom, fandom, brotherhood and the love, hate and maddening obsession that binds them, while firmly establishing the band’s rightful place as a rock ‘n’ roll cornerstone. In the process of pursuing an unlikely sit-down with Ray Davies, Edgers manages to land interviews with the likes of Sting, Clive Davis, Paul Weller, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Buck, Warren Zanes and Zooey Deschanel, and he picks their brains on the influence of The Kinks, the complicated interpersonal relationships that come with playing in a band, and the general pathology of rock musicians — before goading them into jamming with him on a Kinks song, with amusingly varying degrees of success.
Another great write-up for a special movie which, when you are least expected, will be put on cable or equivalent for more of the world to see and enjoy.