Review of Blaze (2018) by Katz A — 07 Sep 2018

Since this was 100% on the tomato meter, I thought it was a must see. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of this movie I really liked. However, in summation it was really two movies awkwardly pieced together into a clunky, long drama.

The best part was the love story between Blaze Foley and his muse, Sybil Rosen. The humor and sadness was enough of a story to make a great movie with a beginning, middle, and ending.

What didn't work was the second story of Blaze and his band of singer songwriter misfits in Austin in the seventies. Someone needs to do that story, but it didn't belong intertwined in this narrative.

It got downright weird when you have Richard Linklater trying to act...he can't and the faux radio interview which was just a big on the nose narrative dump. Charlie Sexton wasn't awful as Townes, but the over the top coke head sniffle seemed gimmicky and got in the way of the performance.

If you loved Blaze, know his songs or live in Austin, you'll want to see this. Don't expect any landmarks, it was all filmed in Louisiana...thank you Texas for your awful film incentives.

I really look forward to someone taking on a more cohesive look at Blaze and Townes and the rest of the lost boys during that magical time for authentic songwriters.