chezztone

I enjoyed this movie (despite its length, and I usually have a short attention span) and would like to see it again. It is an actors' film, full of great performances. The details of the period and locale seem perfect, it pulls you in. Friends who lived through the Brazilian dictatorship say this film captures the feeling of people disappearing for no reason, strange things happening without explanation.

There are quite a few important parts that I just don't understand, or maybe they are supposed to be open to interpretation.

I was bored in the first half, finally walked out of the theater. And now I read reviews saying the first half had all the action!

Some of the music was good -- so good that it took my attention away from the movie, especially the classical guitar.

I guess the acting was good -- the characters were too shallow to tell. And there was too much violence for it to be a comedy. The sexual kinkiness only made it more disturbing, not more interesting.

And mainly it's just way too long.

The music is excellent. Neil Young looks haggard, but when onstage he still has his presence, musicality, great songs old and new, voice, stoner sense of humor. He plays acoustic 6- and 12-string, electric guitar, piano (he carried an upright and a grand on the tour!), and organ (also carried a weird old pipe organ), and always adds harmonica, which he wears on a rack.

Some aging legends take it easy in performance, letting the band carry it, but Young did the opposite, doing it all himself. Great to hear him.

However, the movie is embarrassing whenever he's offstage. He rides in a fancy bus and chats with the driver. His wife, the filmmaker, is there but mostly invisible and inaudible. There also are a couple dogs, his disabled son, and probably a few other people on the bus, but we only hear the dull chat between Young and the bus driver. When they arrive at a gig we see some of the setup, him walking around backstage, interacting with the crew. He drinks one beer at the end of each show and smokes a joint in the day on the bus, otherwise no visible drug or alcohol use. There are special-effect animations during songs that look like something a freshman film student would add.