j3jev

Far be it from me to try to change the minds of those who loved this movie, but I feel compelled to add my opinion.

I found the whole thing a complete and utter waste of my time. Where do I start? The redundant 'let's go back in time' structure - what was the point of that? It never revealed anything to us that changed the way we viewed the movie. I kept thinking... 'aha, now we'll see something that will be a twist - something to really shock us and make us realise that what we've been watching isn't as obvious as we think it has'. But no... just a device that (to me) smacks of urgent re-editing when the producers realised they had a conventionally narratived disappointment on their hands.

The acting was so over the top as to be unbelievable. Finney and Ethan Hawke, the latter of whom is a favourite player of mine, seemed to be auditioning for the world gurning championships and Seymour Hoffman was little better.

The script was unbalanced, with the entire Seymour Hoffman/Finney subplot being slapped on the end rather than evenly distributed throughout (maybe a result of the re-editing process).

In short, a great disappointment (for me) from such a group of talented people.

Rarely have I experienced the kind of karma brought to me last night by Neil and his mates. A true musical genius laid bare. From the soul-stripping lyrics of his near death music to the more traditional songs of the past, the movie exposes Young as nothing more than a thoroughly normal bloke with a rounded and admirable attitude to life and those he loves. Stunning sepia tinged photography mixed with crystal clear sound quality give Young's music the stage it deserves. A unique opportunity to catch a true legend still at the peak of his powers. Wonderful, happy, life-affirming, joyous. Go see. Wallow. Enjoy.

I saw this movie at the recent Garden State Film Festival and checked on it's status here. I'm amazed at it's low ranking. It was an intelligent, well scripted, strongly acted drama with a point of view, presented by a talented director with a strong visual eye. Okay, I can imagine that it's content might not sit well with many mainstream cinema-goers but that's no reason to rate it low. It's a movie made by a woman on women's issues with (presumably) women in mind as its target audience. It will make you think and perfectly recaptures an early nineties time and place. If you like your cinema to be more than eye candy then it deserves a viewing and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm not going to include a vote here because I got to know the director but I'd definitely recommend it. Give it a chance.