Gorillaz: Reject False Icons

After the one-night-only showing of Reject False Icons, I felt elated. I had just witnessed footage of my favorite band over 2 years as if I were a fly-on-the-wall. We got to see content not meant for the everyday viewer, but as fans, got the inside scoop all thanks to Denholm Hewlett. It's almost like Denholm is a fan of the band himself, and he knew exactly the kind of stuff we'd want to see... 😏

The name, Reject False Icons, is a reference to Phase 2, which I think is alluding to the fact that the film is solely about the "humanz" involved in the behemoth project that is Gorillaz. The film focuses mainly on Jamie, Damon, and the live band, however, a smattering of Jamie's colorful art, flashy music video footage, and live visuals keeps us entertained in the transitions. One unfortunate note is that the older music video footage did not seem to be ready for a giant screen, as much of it was still low-res.

The documentary opens up with an homage of the many phases of Gorillaz, finally landing on Jamie's post-apocalyptic/surreal art for Humanz, set to "Tranzformer." The movie is then broken up into three acts - essentially the 'making of' Humanz, Humanz on tour, and The Now Now on tour. Bizarre and cool interludes from Ben Mendelsohn help break up the narrative of the film.

To call the movie a traditional documentary is a bit of a stretch. It lacked narrative and was instead a collection of clips and dialogue (with each scene being no more than about 30 seconds long), documenting the Humanz and TNN tours as they progressed. That being said, the film was an absolute treat for die-hard fans of the band. We got to see and hear many early demos from Humanz and The Now Now - including a beautiful rendition of Busted and Blue by Kelela, a banging version of Phoenix on the Hill recorded in Jamaica, and what's potentially a previously-unheard TNN track, Founding Fathers.

There were also some very "meme-able" momentz coming from Mr. Albarn. I was delighted by the laugh my theatre got from watching him shuffle across the street in his pajamas, Smoggy declaring he had "a bit of a rough night."

My wishlist for the next Gorillaz documentary is perhaps something more interview based, where fans can learn more about the behind-the-scenes thinking that goes into making Gorillaz. For example, how Damon and co. select collaborators, and explaining who the collaborators are to people who aren't YET Gorillaz fans.

In comparison to Bananaz, this film comes across as far more polished and professional - reflecting a similar the journey that Gorillaz have taken these last couple of years. On the last night of the tour, Damon thanks the musicians & crew, saying their act had become "top class." While Bananaz may have been better as a look into the process and history, Reject False Icons was an absolute feast of material for fans to geek out on.

I was underwhelmed. I could hardly hear what people were saying, I guess Grace Jones could not make an appearance (bummer, not really, but that would have helped justify the $17 ticket) and the after credit footage was not memorable.

To reiterate on the audio issue, the music was not loud enough! Feel Good Inc. sounds great at any volume, but I really wanted to be blown away!

This documentary of basically behind the scenes footage and excerpts from concerts during their 18 month tour in 2017 and 2018.

I was at one of those concerts do it was great to see this footage of the your and see just the incredible amount of artists that have played a part in this amazing music collective.

There is no commentary during the documentary but for fans the whole film is a real treat.

With not much information about this documentary and the great idea of screening it in cinemas one night only around the globe, I expected something special or at least very juicy in terms of fan service. But... it's just a collection of clips during the Humanz tour and some very sparse and out of context insight on some tracks. They clearly wanted to give some use to a lot of moments they had recorded and decided to make a documentary out of it, but with no thread, no structure, not much attention put into pacing, not much input on the songwriting and actual music making, and a lot of typical behind the scenes recordings of "oh man, it's great making music with these guys, Gorillaz is my family"... yea, you can tell that the people who'll like this the most is precisely Albarn as his friends. It's like if I made a montage of my vacation, me and my buddies will love it, but even if you know me you'll have a hard time connecting with it if you weren't there.

I won't be too harsh on this since this was later uploaded to Youtube for free, but I was one of those who went to the cinema just for the idea of a Gorillaz movie and it's not the same to watch something like this while it's in the background in the comfort of your home, going for some snacks, chill out and so, than watching it in cinemas where you have to stay on your seat with no pause button and with the expectation of watching something more noteworthy... yea, it wasn't the best. Not a horrible experience by any means, and I'm sure people at home will be more ok with it, but my viewing experience was kinda lackluster.

Reject False Icons is a film which is a real treat for fans of Gorillaz. In short, the film covers the making of "Humanz" and "The Now Now" while their Humanz Tour took place during 2017 and 2018. The entire film is shot in black/white, with some exceptions here and there. It gives a nice touch.

The film itself does not have any commentary or offers any, and as such, the movie goes on in showing highlights of their tour and composing of the albums. It's really interesting to see how Damon and Jamie have worked a lot the past 20 years on Gorillaz, and if I am honest, the movie sparkled the light and made me remember why I love Gorillaz in the first place.

The band has become from a 3 man team to a full-fledged 100+ family. Gorillaz has become such a diverse band and has a criminal record of collaborations around the world. During the clips you saw while the album Humanz was made, you could see and feel the excitement of the entire team during production. They were on fire, had passion, and made the thing as good as it can be. It's a bunch of people working on new projects, while the hyperrealistic nature of the 4 characters is always put first. The band is one of the best that are out there and just started after 2 people sat on a couch and said "Let's make a band", intending to criticise the music industry with each of the characters resembling an oversaturation of a tribe.

The film included a lot of live performances from various albums and paid tribute to Ibrahim Ferrer (Latin Simone, also known for Buena Vista Social Club in Kuba) & Bobby Womack (Stylo) which was one of the best moments in the film. It showed respects to so many talented people, everyone was treated equally and shown in the film at least thrice. There were a lot of unique artists being on stage and behind the scenes. The film had some honourable mentions, including:

• Damon sneezing on-stage, never happened to him once.
• Him visiting a musical group which made their instruments out of reusable material, and got handed a custom made violin
• Him screaming into the camera like a madman and playing a banana like a saxophone afterwards
• The Now Now took only 5 weeks and was recorded during the break of the Humanz tour

As of their tour, they have performed 96 times over 2 years and played music as high as over a week worth.

Reject False Icons is a documentary which shows character, charm, and love for the band we know.