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k-j-whitehead
Reviews
Every Everything: The Music, Life & Times of Grant Hart (2013)
Now that you know me
Work is a drag! It's some weeks since I made the trip to London, the Raindance Festival and the premiere of this film. A pilgrimage really – not to pay homage, more to pay respect to the songwriter, singer, sometimes maligned drummer for Hüsker Dü and star of this show, Grant Hart.
The film would have worked for me, pretty much regardless. Personal history, band biography, plenty of concert footage and archive interviews (slight overuse of the 'Makes No Sense' recording, but that's fine and great if you're not familiar with it). For a fan, what's not to like?
But it's much more than that. The basic construct of 'just Grant' works (as director Gorman Bechard thought it would) because Grant Hart is interesting, clearly creative and, if I'm honest, a little sad. There are many nice moments: a look at him doing his collage art (and stalking around the second-hand shop to pick up the old magazines he tears up to make them), a bit of insight into the creation of Hüsker's album covers (enough for the film, but would have loved more), Grant talking drum kits and drumming. Funny stuff too: about the collage art Grant's asked 'what would you call that?' – '150 bucks' (I think that was his price); the Husker Du impresses Black Flag story told in a Tarantino-esque animated sequence where the spurting blood red of Kill Bill's manga sequence (or may be the green tide of Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle vomit?) is replaced by the splatter of blue paint arse prints; the 'pumpkin band'!
Grant also brings the necessary pathos to raise the film above the average – a bit like 'The Story of Anvil' but, like their respective musical output, less obvious. So we hear about Bob (of course), the period when he 'invested' in his blood stream, the relationship with his estranged son and the destructive fire at the family home. All have affected him, but it's the tour through his home that isn't there (completely destroyed? too damaged to be filmed?) that is perhaps the most poignant. The motivation for his slightly nutty and initially bewildering narrative is anybody's guess (this was apparently Grant's idea; was it a metaphor for his life, career?), but it's cleverly employed by the film maker, returning to it from time to time to provide a thread that holds the film together.
When Gorman Bechard's Kickstarter fund for a film about Grant Hart was launched, a contribution was a personal opportunity to pay back for everything Grant has given - because as many people know, he deserves more recognition. Gorman's ambition here was brave and his film should do this for Grant because he has delivered something special, and so has Grant - in spades.
And the talk of hours of unused footage means that this package can deliver even more. Something to look forward to I hope.