Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me

Terrific rock 'n roll documentary from Drew DeNicola chronicling the rise, the fall, and the third-act reunion of Big Star, a band of serious music guys out of Memphis, Tennessee. Formed in 1971 by Chris Bell, a local musician straight from college, and led by Alex Chilton (who had previously been the lead vocalist with the Box Tops), the group--their name taken, apparently in desperation, from a Memphis grocery store--recorded two critically-acclaimed but non-selling albums before splintering (the band's third album, practically a Chilton solo, is given the short shrift here; was it ever considered completed by Chilton? And what was his reaction when it was finally officially released?). Interviews with the surviving musicians (a slimming group), crew members and relatives provide much of the information needed to put together a fairly clear picture of what the music scene was like in the early 1970s (with poor label distribution and Clive Davis' dismissal from Columbia Records two factors cited in destroying the band). The in-group melodrama is kept to a rather surprising minimum, while the snippets of Big Star's recordings (with Bell and Chilton a disparate yet fully-melded musical duo) are glorious to hear. *** from ****