Bizarre narrative, great music, some interesting anecdotes!
I love disco -- not the cheesy commercial stuff, but the deep "rare funk"/deep soul grooves that some collectors these day pay a pretty penny for.
A strong point of this documentary is that is laden with that... and the corny cheesy stuff too... and it does tell the story.
A weak point is that the film starts with a "radical premise" that a cheesy narrator sets out to prove... but (hope this isn't a spoiler) at the very end its abandoned. (The theory is that disco was a radical social revolution.) Fantastic social/cultural evidence is presented, only one problem: almost all of the stars that are interviewed DISAGREE strongly... Henry K.C. Wayne practically calling it bulls***!!!
What happened? Did director/writer/producer Jamie Kastner set out to argue his premise -- then realize that pretty much most the people he interviewed disagreed with his point... or is it simply a documentary with a sense of humor??? Or is it simply possible that the...
Tries to hard, very poorly done
Missed a great opportunity to do something of value with an important era of music history. Waste of time, no new revelations.
Oh.
The disco episode of "Unsung" (produced by TV One in the US) is a much better use of your time because at least it attempts brevity. Arrogant filmmaking makes this a missed opportunity at best, and a chore to suffer through at worst. Director Jamie Kastner antagonizes nearly every one of the interview subjects for no reason at all, and forgoes adding depth to the historical narrative in favor of inserting a lazy disco superhero subplot. Two stars because at least Kastner has the nerve to show just how annoyed these disco icons grew during the production.
Click to Editorial Reviews
Post a Comment