Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements

I never saw them live. I was introduced to them when I heard "I'll Be You" on the car radio. Still love that song, and I'm grateful that it had enough production polish to get played on the radio. Otherwise, I would have missed out on The Replacements entirely.

"Color Me Obsessed" looks at the quintessential American punk rock band through conversations with the people who got to see and hear them firsthand. These people are unaffected and articulate in their expressions of love, respect and admiration--ironic for a band not known for being sober. Their enthusiasm is genuine and undiminished by the passing of time.

That's what makes this movie so refreshing and uplifting, even as it chronicles four Minnesota youths living on the edge physically and artistically for ten years straight. Alcohol abuse and self destruction are cliché in rock and roll. The Replacements and their legacy are not. So, yes, there is sadness, but there is also music that energizes and inspires the hearts of many (or the few, depending on how you look at it!).

Weird analogy: What "Vernon, Florida" is to turkey hunting, "Color Me Obsessed" is to rock and roll. Never mind.

Highly recommended!

Great fanboy adulation of a monumental American rock band, not sure if this would mean much to the uninitiated...but it's cool nonetheless. It's a loving tribute, done in back asswards style, that would suit the 'Mats shoot-themselves-in-the-foot sort of perverse way of doing things, which is to say, the band is not in this movie, nor is any of their music. But it definitely holds up if you loved and lived this band at any point in your life.

If you're not familiar with the Replacements, then perhaps by viewing this you might be able to get the idea that this band was amazing, special, beautiful, shambolic, brilliant, charming and rock n' roll. Otherwise, I'd suggest getting yourself a copy of Let It Be and let the transformation begin...

The movie also seems to be more about being a 'Mats fan than being about the band itself, it shows a good segment of their fandom which is mostly (now middle-aged) male record-store clerk, rock-critic types, a few musicians and producers and one or two former rock chicks.

There time was short, they burned bright...it was fun to watch...and the music was great, what more can be said?

I saw this at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, a town where the Replacements put on many memorable shows. This film ain't about the band, it's about their fans...and their passion for the band. It's a wonderful mix of fans and writers like Jim DeRogatis, Greg Kot and Robert Christgau who were spreading the word from the beginning. One of the interviewees compares their legacy to the Velvet Underground. It is said they only sold a few thousand albums in their career, but everyone who bought one started a band. Among today's bands that carry the Mats flag, Wilco (my current obsession) stands out and there's Jeff Tweedy proclaiming that every Wilco song is based on the Replacements.

The Mats were human, and that humanity shines through without any of the members being on screen.

This is the best rock doc I have ever seen. I watched this film knowing little to nothing about the Replacements. I left with a real desire to experiences their music. The film puts the stories together in a way that made me feel that I personally follow the replacements into the bars and not only heard their gigs but set down and drank with the Replacements before their sets, though you hear none of their music. Color me Obsessed took me on a carnival ride I want to get on and ride again and again. Though this film is essentially talking heads the director captivated me visually with the composition of each shot as he wove tales that I not only wished I was part of, but I willed myself to first imagine then believe that I was a part of.

This film made me laugh out loud, as I saw these guys 3 times, and then saw Paul a few times in his single carrier. This band was the band that never wanted to be recognized as good, but they were very talented. I saw the film Sat. with a few other friends and the only thing I wish it had of course was music, but it did such a great job of story telling, that it wasn't needed. More pictures of the band would have been great, and that was my only gripe, other than that a splendid movie with great storytelling of a great band out of the Twin Cities! Now bring it on to Blu-Ray so I can buy a copy! :) Again, thanks for bringing back some great memories!