Taking Woodstock

My cinema prof once told me that all movies are really about the time in which they're made.  If nothing else that time period is reflected in the film, and we can help make more sense of a movie if we view it through the lens of its time.  This is a good thing to remember with Taking Woodstock.  It will help a lot when I talk about why they chose not to show much (if any) of the concert itself.

But first, let's see what I said about the trailer:

This one is a Madelyn request. I wasn't impressed when I first heard about this one, and the trailer I saw before District 9 was hardly inspiring. This Hulu trailer, though... It gets me more excited. Demitri Martin is mostly great, and this trailer takes it from "probably bad comedy" to "mediocre comedy with a heart" in my mind. That's much more viewable. Still, while trying to come up with things to say about it, I can't think of much. It's a pretty bland story; I could write you the plot and all major twists from the name alone. There will be a scene with someone from town trying to shut them down, parents not liking the idea then deciding it's great, a revelation on the part of or humiliation of the bad guy just in time for him to join in on that mud slide, and undoubtedly a romantic scene on a hill with a beautiful girl and Demitri that gets rudely interrupted by the crazy / in your face / over the top best friend. Still, stereotypes can be fun, and I'm curious about any progress in Martin's career. Friends could convince me to go. Okay, I'll be honest, a girl would have to convince me to go.

I was right about at least one thing:  a girl got me to go.

I'm still having trouble coming up with things to say about it.  I think this is because it wasn't that compelling for me.  This is a movie with jokes in it, but I'd hesitate to call it a comedy.  It feels... empty a lot of the time, a space that Madelyn and Marie filled with talking about how attractive Demetri Martin is.

The story is that of a guy who offers up some fields in his town to Woodstock, and it's the 20-something version of a coming of age story.  Demetri is this wannabe artist who's never broken out of his shell, largely because he spends most of his time and money keeping his parent's small town hotel afloat.  His parents are both great characters.  Mom is a stingy, tough, little old Russian Jew.  When all the hippies show up, she starts charging people for pillows at the hotel, and there's a good bit where she hits some kids bangin' in the woods with a stick.  Dad is also an old Russian Jew, but he's more depressed.  He's the kind of guy that feels like he's got nothing left to do but wait around to die.  Both parents are good performances on the part of the actors, and the characters are much more 3 dimensional than you would expect from a bad summer comedy.  This is probably because Taking Woodstock isn't a bad summer comedy.

What else did I predict?  This movie does have a heart; I was right about that.  You won't find any of the scenes I listed, though.  There are some townspeople who get mad and try to shut Woodstock down, but they're not a major plot point.  The point of their scene was more to demonstrate just how enormous this thing had become and just how futile their efforts to shut it down were.

Oh, and I was wrong about how you spell "Demetri".

Back to the story.  So Demetri is unsure about what to do with himself since he wants to take care of his parents but recognizes that this is eventually going to ruin him.  With nothing else to do he does nothing.  Until Woodstock shows up.

[Begin spoilers]

Ultimately, the film's conclusion did not conclude everything.  Demetri finally breaks away from his parents, largely because his dad gets some life back into him after participating in the organization of the concert.  Mom has some serious unresolved issues, though.  She's just a messed up woman, and it's probably too late to do anything about it.  She'll probably end up okay with dad taking care of her for as long as he can, but it's just sad to see her so screwed up.  At least dad gets healed.  Demetri wanders off into the world, presumably to California to start a career in art.  Woodstock happens.

I'm not sure what the conflict was in this story.  Okay, that's a lie.  The conflict is in Demetri's head; it's the decision to either head out into the world or stick around with his parents.  This conflict is even resolved.  Maybe my problem was just that the movie didn't make me care enough.  The theme of family obligation vs your own life is not one I've ever connected with well, and this movie wasn't above average at making that connection.

But there were good things!  Number one on this cinema nerd's list was the allusions to the famous Woodstock documentary by liberal use of split screen action.  One scene with lots of cameras all showing the action simultaneously was a recurring feature.  There were even some shots that were framed and set up to look like footage from the documentary; a lot of the construction comes to mind, but there were other moments, too.

The acting was good.  There were plenty of funny moments - the theater troop's performance was particularly spot on parody.  Demetri is, I'll admit, a pretty awesome dude.  Having a gay main character is something I admire.  It's getting more and more acceptable to actually show GAYS IN THE MOVIES.  Scary, I know.  I was saying on the way home that I was fully expecting an academy awards style movie about being gay soon only to be one-upped by Madelyn.  Milk already exists, apparently.  Whatever.  The point is that it's good more movies are having this as a (sub)plot, even if Taking Woodstock didn't do much with it.  In fact, if the real life person Demetri was based on hadn't been gay, I bet Demetri's character would've been straight.  At least it's good that they aren't leaving that out entirely; a decade(ish) ago, the main character just wouldn't have had a love interest.

Which brings us back to my first comment, that every movie reflects the time period it was created in.  It's an obvious time to make a movie about Woodstock since it's an anniversary that's a multiple of 10, but it's never an obvious time to make a movie about Woodstock with no scenes that take place at the actual concert (drug trips excluded).  There's got to be symbolism in the fact that Demetri's character never makes it to the concert despite trying for three days.  The directer had better have a damn good reason not to include any scenes at the actual concert, because that's what would otherwise sell this movie.  It's ballsy to make this movie with no concert footage.  There's gotta be a reason.

Let me get into CAMS analysis mode real quick here.

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Alright.  If this movie is about the present, then it's not much of a stretch to say that Demetri represents an average guy from 2009.  For one thing, Demetri the actor is this more or less average guy in 2009.  He acts just like he does in 2009, he looks just like he does in 2009, etc.  From there, let's look at his progression through the movie.  He starts off without much direction; he hasn't been doing well recently.  He's in trouble financially, and he's at a loss as to what to do next.  He's busy dealing with obligations he's given himself in the form of his parents, and he's got a barn full of crazy 60s hippies that he occasionally checks in on.

Next he calls up the guys organizing this concert that needs a place to happen and tells them to come to him.  A whole bunch of stuff happens real fast, and pretty soon he's finding out all sorts of things.  He's gay.  On top of that, there's other gay people out there, there's people who are even weirder sexually than he is, and his dad doesn't really care about any of that.  The world is an interesting place full of all sorts of great, wacky people, and there's way more of them than there are naysayers.  This whole thing is sounding like a statement about the 2009 silent majority, if you will.

On the other hand, maybe we see Woodstock as a representation of the 60s ideals:  peace, acceptance, happiness, etc.  After the concert actually begins, Demetri is encouraged by his dad to go.  He tries every day, but each time something gets in his way.  Drugs, the weather, his parents...  Everything keeps him from actually getting there.  We haven't gotten to that heightened level of acceptance.

In the end, he at least gets somewhere.  We may not be loving everyone and the world around us, but at least Demetri ends up with some sort of direction.  We don't know exactly what he's going to do out there, but we're confident it's a move in the right direction.

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SAM'S VERDICT:  Appearances can be deceiving.  It's more character and less comedy than the box would have you believe!  Still just okay.