Gorillaz: Reject False Icons

Being a long time Gorillaz fan and loving the Bananaz documentary I was really looking forward to seeing this film. This documentary captures the recording and tours of Humanz and The Now Now. I would have liked to have seen more behind the scenes studio content and less concert footage. Also found it frustrating only hearing 20 second snippets of their songs. Highlights of the film include the version of Busted and Blue with Kelela and Albarn's performance of Cloud of Unknowing.

I was underwhelmed. I could hardly hear what people were saying, I guess Grace Jones could not make an appearance (bummer, not really, but that would have helped justify the $17 ticket) and the after credit footage was not memorable.

To reiterate on the audio issue, the music was not loud enough! Feel Good Inc. sounds great at any volume, but I really wanted to be blown away!

With not much information about this documentary and the great idea of screening it in cinemas one night only around the globe, I expected something special or at least very juicy in terms of fan service. But... it's just a collection of clips during the Humanz tour and some very sparse and out of context insight on some tracks. They clearly wanted to give some use to a lot of moments they had recorded and decided to make a documentary out of it, but with no thread, no structure, not much attention put into pacing, not much input on the songwriting and actual music making, and a lot of typical behind the scenes recordings of "oh man, it's great making music with these guys, Gorillaz is my family"... yea, you can tell that the people who'll like this the most is precisely Albarn as his friends. It's like if I made a montage of my vacation, me and my buddies will love it, but even if you know me you'll have a hard time connecting with it if you weren't there.

I won't be too harsh on this since this was later uploaded to Youtube for free, but I was one of those who went to the cinema just for the idea of a Gorillaz movie and it's not the same to watch something like this while it's in the background in the comfort of your home, going for some snacks, chill out and so, than watching it in cinemas where you have to stay on your seat with no pause button and with the expectation of watching something more noteworthy... yea, it wasn't the best. Not a horrible experience by any means, and I'm sure people at home will be more ok with it, but my viewing experience was kinda lackluster.

Reject False Icons is a film which is a real treat for fans of Gorillaz. In short, the film covers the making of "Humanz" and "The Now Now" while their Humanz Tour took place during 2017 and 2018. The entire film is shot in black/white, with some exceptions here and there. It gives a nice touch.

The film itself does not have any commentary or offers any, and as such, the movie goes on in showing highlights of their tour and composing of the albums. It's really interesting to see how Damon and Jamie have worked a lot the past 20 years on Gorillaz, and if I am honest, the movie sparkled the light and made me remember why I love Gorillaz in the first place.

The band has become from a 3 man team to a full-fledged 100+ family. Gorillaz has become such a diverse band and has a criminal record of collaborations around the world. During the clips you saw while the album Humanz was made, you could see and feel the excitement of the entire team during production. They were on fire, had passion, and made the thing as good as it can be. It's a bunch of people working on new projects, while the hyperrealistic nature of the 4 characters is always put first. The band is one of the best that are out there and just started after 2 people sat on a couch and said "Let's make a band", intending to criticise the music industry with each of the characters resembling an oversaturation of a tribe.

The film included a lot of live performances from various albums and paid tribute to Ibrahim Ferrer (Latin Simone, also known for Buena Vista Social Club in Kuba) & Bobby Womack (Stylo) which was one of the best moments in the film. It showed respects to so many talented people, everyone was treated equally and shown in the film at least thrice. There were a lot of unique artists being on stage and behind the scenes. The film had some honourable mentions, including:

• Damon sneezing on-stage, never happened to him once.
• Him visiting a musical group which made their instruments out of reusable material, and got handed a custom made violin
• Him screaming into the camera like a madman and playing a banana like a saxophone afterwards
• The Now Now took only 5 weeks and was recorded during the break of the Humanz tour

As of their tour, they have performed 96 times over 2 years and played music as high as over a week worth.

Reject False Icons is a documentary which shows character, charm, and love for the band we know.

This documentary of basically behind the scenes footage and excerpts from concerts during their 18 month tour in 2017 and 2018.

I was at one of those concerts do it was great to see this footage of the your and see just the incredible amount of artists that have played a part in this amazing music collective.

There is no commentary during the documentary but for fans the whole film is a real treat.