My Dinner with Jimi

I just saw the film at a film festival in Hollywood. I thought THE TURTLES made a great subject, the time period and other musicians of the era were well represented. The budget is low, but the director (Bill Fishman) did a great job incorporating stock footage, animation, and a limited production schedule. Overall, if you like the song HAPPY TOGETHER, you will be entertained learning more about this group.

Also, Justin Henry, the child actor from Kramer vs. Kramer, turns out a great believable performance. Watch it.

How sad that after being one of the better known groups of the time and having hits, the most interesting thing in your life was meeting other famous people.

Time has not been kind to the band. All the other bands in the film are well remembered, constantly played, numerous bios and documentaries, thought of as long lasting art. The Turtles get brief mentions, seem almost one hit wonders though they were not.

There were some amusing moments that are familiar from other films. The whole trope about young band overwhelmed by first taste of fame. But it's been done many times, and better.

I had never heard of this movie until it came on Amazon Prime in 2019 and as someone who was alive during the 60's it was wonderful.

Howard Kaylan presents a very tongue in cheek look at his experiences with the Turtles at the point of their first "Big Hit" and tour of England in 1967. Meeting all the usual suspects and their British Invasion heros in 1967 London The Turtles were shocked to find feet of clay in meeting The Beatles, a musical group that were at the height of their power with the release of Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band coming the day after the events in the movie.

All the characters are played by actors with various degrees of success. Some come across as caricatures of their public personas. Then again it is all filtered through Howard Kaylan's memory and his well known degree of snark.

Partner Turtle, Mark Volman comes across as a buffoon and is relegated to the background mostly except when singing.

Donovan is a mystic hippie, John Lennon is an insufferable guy. Paul is polite and fun, George just tries to keep John from being an insufferable guy. Ringo is kind of drunk. Meeting Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) in an alley way leads to being introduced to Jimi Hendrix and the subsequent dinner with Jimi, really more of a way to many drinks before eating kind of gabfest for Jimi.

Jimi is a sympathetic and humble man in this portrait, beset by the same insecurities that Howard has about success and acceptance by the audience..

A wonderful filtered by time remembrance by one who was there.

I smiled through the whole film. The music is great. The story-telling is great. It's a wonderful film. This picture is made with respect and a true love of the sixties.

Here's an entertaining little film with one small point to make (maybe one and a half). But it does it in a pleasant way, evoking a nostalgic image of '60s hippies trying to make music, have fun and find a new way in the world. The acting is competent, directing likewise, script is middling but everyone does a good job with it. It's too bad the actors who could portray the '60s attitude are too old for the parts - there's a lot of stereotyping and far-out mugging in attempting to convey the mood of the time. It just doesn't work very well, in my opinion.

I had to go to a bit of trouble to find this on DVD, but finally managed to get it from Germany. If you have a collection of music films from or about the 1960s, this one should definitely be in your collection. If you stumble across a copy, by all means get it. If you're just casually interested, I am not sure a great effort will seem worthwhile, however.

The soundtrack is, of course, completely groovy!