Review of When You're Strange (2010) by Rebecca R — 13 May 2010
Writer/Director Tom DiCillo, taking a break from his usual off-beat independent narrative films (Johnny Suede, Box of Moonlight, Living in Oblivion), crafts an extraordinary documentary about an extraordinary band: The Doors.
Eschewing the standard documentary tool of interviews with surviving band members, friends, family, etc., DiCillo instead, with the aid of terrifically droll yet effective narration by Johnny Depp, uses still photographs, period footage, and, most importantly, footage taken by Paul Ferrara, a friend of lead singer Jim Morrison, of the band (along with footage of Morrison traveling through the desert on his own - recreated by Oliver Stone in his 1991 biopic, The Doors) in the studio, on-stage, back-stage, and just out and about, the majority of which has remained largely unseen by the public for decades.
This is easily one of the all-time great Rock n Roll documentaries, and is everything the bloated and pretentious Stone film should have been; enthralling, artistic, profound, funny, irreverent, important, brilliant, and most of all, rockin'!
This review of When You're Strange (2010) was written by Rebecca R on 13 May 2010.
When You're Strange has generally received positive reviews.
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