Mateo

One could perceive this as an indie/alternative documentary and there is nothing wrong with that. However i feel that even when you would see this documentary as such the shots remain very awkward and "sad", you can claim that it was done on purpose however that even makes it worse for me. Throughout the documentary i had a few big questions towards the story,scenes and people within the Docu: que significado, Why am i watching this, why do i need to know this and why do other people want to see this? I guess that i should have read the storyline before watching it, but then again never judge a Docu by its storyline. Overall this docu was unable to convey a clear story and it left me with a feeling that could be compared to standing in the rain while longing for home. That could be the emotion that the directors wanted you to have, or at least would be OK with conveying such an emotion to the viewer. Here again i don't think that would be such a bad thing if the storyline had some kind of significance to it.

This documentary is about a man who pursues his dreams relentlessly. For me as a perfectionist, it was inspiring to see how much he believes in himself. I mean, "Matteo" is this musician who's whiter than white, struggling financially, barely able to speak Spanish and still he keeps coming back to Cuba to record his album. It's obvious people don't take him very seriously, and still he has Cuban friends who totally have his back. Some scenes in this movie are so painfully cringey, also it's a bit too long, could have been wrapped up in an hour. And yet...you expect him to fail so hard but in the end, success comes from an unlikely place. That's why this movie is very uplifting for anybody who ever wanted to make art or music. Gets you thinking "If he could do it somehow, why can't I?"

Joe Leydon's review in Variety magazine (August 21, 2015) of the Matthew Stoneman documentary focuses predominately on a negative evaluation of the personality features of a man who presents, in this film, with several psychological symptoms that could be said to be characteristic of the autism syndrome. Matthew Stoneman is apparently not a warm and charismatic character. Nor does he seem to be capable of creating in-depth emotional relationships, his living style borders on messy chaos, at times even disgusting, and he is apparently incapable of executive tasks (his production costs are astronomical, his organization of his life sub-existential). The film is, however, a documentary about a man who is both a musical phenomena - true, weird and incapable in several emotional features - yet composes and sings music in the Son tradition of Cuba. And gathers together for his CD some amazing Cuban musicians and, as mentioned in the film, he sings like an angel. Leydon spends most of his time focusing on his distaste for the man's personality and seems to miss the point entirely when he then judges the film as lacking a classical Hollywood climax. His criticism runs just short of the type of mobbing that people like Stoneman meet as children on the school playground. If one can get beyond their likes or dislikes of personality characteristics and focus on the music, which is what Stoneman is exclusively about, then Stoneman is a phenomenal musician, with an exceptionally lovely voice and produces an exceptional CD with excellent Cuban musicians who judge him for his music and care little about his personality flaws.