jf-39912

I knew this had won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2012, but with a couple thousand films on my 'View List' I did not get around to watching it until very recently. It is a remarkable true story -- I'm sure well covered here by now -- and in the overall drift of documentary subject matter an unusually uplifting one. The main point I'd like to raise is the elephant in the room never directly addressed in the film itself, but still present perhaps, looming in the wings: that there is ZERO correlation whatever between acclaim, notoriety, or in particular commercial success on the one hand, and *lasting* artistic merit on the other ! Van Gogh lived in poverty and with a rude rejection, selling just one painting in his lifetime, only recognized for his genius and awesome contributions to art long after, though his work eventually amassed in the high hundred million dollars in sales. (In this documentary, the record label owner Clarence Avant somewhat cavalierly dismisses Sixto Rodriguez strictly on the basis of negligible album sales, illustrating that very dichotomy, while at the same time ranking Sixto among the top 5 songwriters he could list, and ahead of Bob Dylan ! Something is clearly out-of-whack there !)

Van Gogh got a fictional psychological reprieve in the splendid 2016 short "The Red Fool" -- occasionally shown on cable channel ShortsTV -- in which he returns to our present day world to witness the redeeming personal vindication of history. But Sixto got to do this even better in real life, something denied most of the great artists who remained "unsung" in their own lifetimes. That would be the astounding vest pocket success in South Africa, a history-altering one *despite* an attempted suppression by the Apartheid-era authorities, which much later on jump-started his rediscovery. The documentary covers the falsely believed-to-be-dead rumor mill, and the spade work required to unravel it. The cherry on top is the biographical detail -- the sheer grace and humility of the man himself, and of his worldview.

I'm considering this among the best music-oriented documentaries that I've seen over the years, up there with Jay Bulger's 2012 "Beware of Mr. Baker" and Kevin Macdonald's fine 2012 film on Bob Marley. In terms of overall musical significance, the film and its subject would also keep good company with the 2010 documentary portrait "Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune," which you can add to that list.

(I'd extend to a 6.5, if fractions were permitted.) To begin with, Natasha Lyonne brings a sizable reservoir of audience good will into a project, accumulated over the course of her career -- and that's always a nice place to start. This one is a generally anthology type of story format, with certain background throughlines. Lyonne tends to show up in each episode after around 10 minutes or so of story setup, then backtracking from there. The prevailing gimmick has her being a "human lie detector", while she's on a run for her life cross-country from some determined, capable bad people who have considerable reach and resources, because she happens to be a loose-end bystander who figured out a murder, and then a revenge target due to a subsequently related death. In that, the formula here is at least somewhat of a nod back towards the venerable "The Fugitive" series of the 1960s. One key difference is that the running and roaming Richard Kimble never had to contend with modern tech like ATMs or cellphones, which can quickly and precisely betray one's whereabouts.

Another is that Lyonne's Charlie character becomes like a dog with a bone when it comes to being unable to *stop* following a trail of lies, as she repeatedly insinuates herself into various situations, mysteries, and the lives of people she encounters in her travels. Sort of like an unofficial, self-appointed, amateur Columbo.

And that leads into just where this premise gets kind of thin and rather strained. Are there that many -- even temporary --menial jobs out there for which no I. D. or references are required ? No one as smart as Charlie clearly is, with at least an ounce of self-preservation, would stick around as long in a situation or continue taking the risks that she does -- and all for strangers. Keeping a much lower profile would surely become the wiser order of the day. As such, I don't really see this as having enough substance to go for additional seasons. There are a couple episodes remaining, but I'm also wondering why she hasn't found some good disguising makeup artist, enabling her to once again make some subsistence money with her talents at playing poker, while still avoiding any major or well-covered tournaments ?

Namely, how unapologetically "*precious*" and self-conscious it is in most of his work. The reflexive, lurking-just-beneath-the-surface "I'm so damned Hip and so damned Clever, Aren't I ?" tone of it. Pretty tough to put up with, at least for me. Can't really abide that, from ANY filmmaker. Amidst Anderson's filmography, this title was one of the worst offenders in that regard.

There have been exceptions: I really liked his first -- and clearly a modest, low-budget indie effort -- "Bottle Rocket" (1996), apparently before this tendency emerged, and some of what he's done in the animation format has certainly been different and interesting. Apart from that, and so long as the pervasive self-congratulation fest continues, I would tend to avid his films.