Taking Woodstock - Ang Lee's skewered look at the most notorious concert of all time from the point of view of...wait for it...the kid who organized it and never actually watched the concert. Sounds like a blast right? I had almost as much fun at this film as I did at Jarhead back in '05. Do not go to this film if you want to hear music from the actual concert. The main character taunts us by carelessly mentioning the bands and singers at the start of the film, and we never see/hear any of them.
Stealing the thunder of the most famous concert of our time is Eliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin), sporting a hairstyle and personality straight out of a Wes Anderson film. His journey is just plain not interesting. It sounds like it would be more interesting to have read the real person's book, where he meets numerous famous people and gets involved in riots for being a homosexual. That sounds like a better film than one that constantly cheats an audience out of a great concert in exchange for Jethro Tull. My guess is that they simply couldn't get the rights.
It's a film that focuses on all the wrong things. It focuses on sneaking gay love under our noses rather than making any sort of statement, as the actual writer did, about it. A film that spends more time on the preparation involved in preparing a space for a million and a half people to watch a concert, as opposed to the concert itself. I was reminded once of Kevin Smith doing stand-up and explaining why he would never direct an action film. His version of "The Green Hornet" would have involved the guys sitting around and talking about dick jokes. They see a fight occurring off-screen and go break it up, then go back to dishing about movies and whatnot. This is that equivalent.
I could give the film points for the way it sweetly delivers nudity and intimacy of both hetero and homosexual variety, but I instantly take those away for the offensive Jewish stereo-typing of Imelda Staunton's character, Mrs. Teichberg, as a money grubbing witch. She is a stereotype and worse, a two-dimensional one. The hippies, too, are exactly what you would expect. I guess Elliot was the only normal guy experiencing a life-changing event. Only Liev Schreiber salvages some entertainment value as a witty crossdresser.
I never knew Woodstock could be so dull, tame and boring. D+
Stealing the thunder of the most famous concert of our time is Eliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin), sporting a hairstyle and personality straight out of a Wes Anderson film. His journey is just plain not interesting. It sounds like it would be more interesting to have read the real person's book, where he meets numerous famous people and gets involved in riots for being a homosexual. That sounds like a better film than one that constantly cheats an audience out of a great concert in exchange for Jethro Tull. My guess is that they simply couldn't get the rights.
It's a film that focuses on all the wrong things. It focuses on sneaking gay love under our noses rather than making any sort of statement, as the actual writer did, about it. A film that spends more time on the preparation involved in preparing a space for a million and a half people to watch a concert, as opposed to the concert itself. I was reminded once of Kevin Smith doing stand-up and explaining why he would never direct an action film. His version of "The Green Hornet" would have involved the guys sitting around and talking about dick jokes. They see a fight occurring off-screen and go break it up, then go back to dishing about movies and whatnot. This is that equivalent.
I could give the film points for the way it sweetly delivers nudity and intimacy of both hetero and homosexual variety, but I instantly take those away for the offensive Jewish stereo-typing of Imelda Staunton's character, Mrs. Teichberg, as a money grubbing witch. She is a stereotype and worse, a two-dimensional one. The hippies, too, are exactly what you would expect. I guess Elliot was the only normal guy experiencing a life-changing event. Only Liev Schreiber salvages some entertainment value as a witty crossdresser.
I never knew Woodstock could be so dull, tame and boring. D+