Review of Arcade Fire - The Reflektor Tapes (2015) by Pablo B — 23 Sep 2015

Your tolerance of this film will heavily depend upon just how much you love this band; luckily for Kahlil Joseph & co, I basically adore them. This is an unabashedly arty and pretentious piece, scattershot and disconnected in its approach - but isn't that the whole point? Probably not. But it could be. Taking remixed and deconstructed excerpts from their latest record Reflektor, this abstract documentary follows no tangible line of enquiry, nor does it attempt to construct a narrative of any kind. Instead, Joseph artfully curates something with a semblance of a film using rugged handheld footage in the studio, in Jamaica and in Haiti alongside some glossy steady-cam shots of the band live on stage.

Whilst the film being insistent in retaining Arcade Fire's carefully maintained layers of ambiguity and privacy may frustrate some, for me it strikes a perfect balance. Besides, whilst it may not pry into their personal lives at all, this film does deliver insight into the band's recording process and provides fascinating footage of their time in Jamaica, discovering and exploring the sounds around them, scenes which will no doubt enrich the aural experience of listening to Reflektor next time around.

For many, the band's flaws shine through this inherently flawed rockumentary: pretentious, po-faced and aesthetic obsessed, with little meaning beyond the artrock surface. I don't see it, personally. I still love Arcade Fire, in fact I probably love them more after this (especially RÃ (C)gine, who shows an endearing sense of vulnerability in a few scenes), an achievement if there ever was one. Even in a sea of alleged pretentiousness and glossy surface musing, there is emotional nourishment: case in point, Win sat alone, singing the lyrics to It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus), lost in the music.

It's a heartening scene in a muddled but audacious masterpiece that is a natural extension of Arcade Fire's ideas at this particular time and has left me yearning more than ever for whatever they release next.

(This score is fully influenced by my love for this band - this is of course not a 5 star film. Still much better than the reviews suggest though).