Jelly Roll: Save Me

Dcoumentary films about musicians have always been self-congratulatory puff-pieces, but now that the corporate grip on commercial music production has closed so completely that it is impossible - rather than just very difficult - to "make it" without being the creation of a media PR machine (I am a musician, and know whereof I speak), a new sub-genre of music doc has emerged: namely transparent attempts to continue peddling the myth that the little guy can still make it big.

This depiction of the man known as Jelly Roll is a virtual apotheosis of this concept: despite being admittedly "too fat and ugly" to be a star (which does actually literally mean that he would never be allowed to be one - this reality cannot be overcome), and a multiple jailbird, drunk, druggie, etc. Etc, he is described as having the most meteoric rise to stardom ever of a musician.

The entire situation is so palpably manufactured and false that it beggars belief. "We released a song on YouTube, and the next day we were performing in stadiums every night." Yeah, right. The PR people can't even be bothered to ensure that the actor playing "Jelly Roll" stays in character throughout: his dialogue is far too sophisticated to be spoken by a 9th-grade drop-out, or whatever he is supposed to be. Even his "good old boy" accent keeps slipping, revealing glimpses of a much more educated way of speaking.

Essentially, then, this film is the next level of the deliberate mocking of musicians at the bottom of the industry food chain (which is the only position that now exists, other than created global phenomenon: there is nothing in-between) by smug company lackeys who have arrogated all power unto themselves, and delight in rubbing everyone else's noses in this fact.