Review of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007) by Ewan M — 29 Jun 2007

Saw this at the Curzon Soho a couple of weeks back having queued half way down Shaftesbury Avenue to get a ticket, not because there were a lot of people wanting tickets, but because their ticket machine was broken, and they were apparently crafting each individual ticket by hand, which took an unbelievably long time. This is the sort of thing you get at the Curzon Soho - it's one of those arty cinemas where they don't let you in if you're not sporting enough eccentric facial hair or a hat worn at a strange angle.

As for the film itself, it was a two-hour documentary which mainly featured people who had apparently been stoned since 1977 and showed no intention of becoming less stoned as they cheerily ranted incoherently at a camera whilst inexplicably sitting round a campfire. (They did explain the reason they were all sitting round a campfire later on but I'd stopped listening by then.) I read "Redemption Song" at Christmas so there was nothing very much that was new. The film was made in a way where it was blindly obvious when they didn't have enough footage, because they interspersed what they did have with clips from obscure films and the cartoon version of "Animal Farm", which I've no doubt thrilled the audience as they stroked their respective gotis, but you got the feeling that they'd sort of forgotten about it after an hour or so, when all this deep and meaningful stuff disappeared in favour of shots of various gigs, arguments and Topper Headon throwing up. Interesting stuff, and reminded me that I haven't listened to the Mescaleros for a long time. Left feeling smug, as there was little I didn't already know. Which doesn't say much for my life, really.