Yes, I’m a huge Neil Young fan, but his latest rockumentary with collaborator Jonathan Demme, was one of the worst music films I’ve ever seen. The live performances were amazing, of course, throughout the entire film was horribly shot. Really bad camera work. For a few songs, there was a point where the camera did a close up of Neil’s mouth, and you can actually see his teeth and the inside of his mouth when he is singing. I’m like, really? I’m not making this up, watch the film yourself. It’s creepy. I don’t see how Neil himself enjoys seeing himself like that. The live performances were at, Massey Hall, during the “Le Noise” tour.

The concert was just Neil and his guitar. Switching from electric or acoustic, with no back up band. In between songs, there are interviews with Neil driving around Ontario where he grew up, in one of his old fashioned cars. Those parts were interesting but we needed more of it.

I hope Neil will stop working with Jonathan Demme soon ’cause they already worked on 3 films together, and I don’t think I’ll bother watching the other two, after this one.

There was one part that I did like, though, was the ending of the film. When Neil finished a song, the last song of the concert, Neil went backstage, and the camera followed him and recorded everything he did backstage. He was eating some kind of fruit, either lemons or oranges, can’t tell which, and he was drinking some kind of alcohol, while his fans chanted for an encore. Then he went back out and played one last song. After the final song got over with, Neil once again walked backstage and outside to the tour bus and that was it. That was the only scene of the film that I liked, but the rest of the film was garbage.

Jonathan Demme should stick with making fictional movies ’cause music documentaries isn’t for him.

Kev