Bittersweet Motel

As a huge Phish fan, I obviously loved this movie. It's great to see interviews with the band and to gain their perspectives on things (i.e. How Mike tells Trey he plays too many notes. You can actually see some tension there). As for non-Phish fans, my opinion is that music lovers will appreciate this movie and will like this documentary. Others just won't get it (much like how people feel about Phish's music).

This documentary is a disaster. Badly shot, sloppily edited, full of cliches, without any semblance of story development... everything that gives rock documentaries a bad name. Phish come across as a bunch of 40-ish nerds who could just as easily be writing code in some computer lab as playing music. We learn nothing about who they are, what drives them, or why we should give a **it. Nothing happens in this film except a bunch of shows, rehearsals and allegedly funny antics by obviously bored band members.

Bittersweet Motel is a well made documentary that follows the band on tour from their 1996 New Year's Eve show in New York City to their two day concert in August of 97, the Great Went which attracted 70,000 fans to Limestone, Maine.

The footage was shot at different venues on their American and European tour. It includes live performances and candid backstage action as well as home movie style fun off stage and personal interviews about their music. A lot of the film is lighthearted, not because the subject isn't taken seriously but because these guys are just fun people. There are plenty of parts which will make you laugh out loud.

Todd Phillips wisely keeps the focus on the band and their music and doesn't focus much attention on the horde of fans which follow the band from show to show. A lot of media coverage often centers around their fans, so it is refreshing to see more of an emphasis on the music and the guys that create it. There are many candid scenes of them discussing their music, whether it be criticizing or praising a set minutes after leaving the stage or analyzing a song. We are also given a peek at the band on a smaller backstage setup rehearsing songs right before going on stage to perform them.

The only complaint that I have about the film is that much of the coverage centers around Trey Anastasio, the lead singer and guitarist. While this was interesting and entertaining, I would've liked to have seen more of a balance of coverage of the other band members in interviews. To Todd Phillips credit, the lack of balance may be because of their shyness or disinterest in the making of the film. Trey was obviously a lot more out-going and enthusiastic about appearing on camera than the other band members.

As a fan, I believe this film discusses things that fans have always wondered about. This documentary is exactly what many fans have wanted to see for years. Whether this film will appeal to non-fans, I don't know. But I don't think they will watch it anyway.

Produced by Todd Phillips - whose next produced film was Old School followed by The Hangover. The movie is great. Fun. Funny. Great small venue concert footage. Nearly impossible to watch except 'illegally' on YouTube or via the DVD that I've owned forever.

Well if you love Phish you really should get this DVD, but you knew that! It has plenty of full length extras on it (PYITE, BBFCFM) and is quite hilarious at times. The complaints that I hear about this movie are sound, however. I didn't like the interviews with the fans, and the songs ARE clipped for time. I don't know why they bothered clipping the songs to make this movie run a lean 84 minutes, in most cases they should have just let them play and made the movie 2+ hours. Everybody is going to have a list of songs that they wish had been included, so I'm not going to complain about certain songs that I believe should definitely be in any Phish movie but were left out. I certainly love this movie and will watch it a hundred times if this first week is any indication of things to come.

This thing is worth buying for the killer NYE and Great Went footage alone.