The inane title, taken from the invitation to the Tim Buckley tribute concert, is a foreboding of how dull and vague is the movie to follow. This movie was to me at times frustrating, at other time just boring, most of the time frustratingly boring.
I have a healthy appreciation for Jeff Buckley and was curious to see a bit about his father's life, as well as explore the relationship between the two. Unfortunately what we're given is a string of thematically incoherent scenes, too lacking in substance to be considered vignettes. There's almost no progression - plot doesn't unfold, themes aren't explored, we never dig deeper into the characters who don't develop anyway.
With each new scene I found myself initially engaged, partly as relief from the having the last meaningless scene end, and partly in anticipation that the next might delve into something a bit more meaty and substantial. Alas, each is as directionless as the last.
Penn Badgley, as Jeff Buckley, is quite convincing as a troubled creative mind. Though many times the wistful aloofness does not endear himself to us. The character lacks charm. Tim Buckley is thematically central to the movie, but the script effectively leaves him with the status as a secondary character, appearing in a jumble of cut scenes smattered here and there. Imogen Poots does well as an unnecessarily cliché love interest. The acting was overall quite good, but lets us down with a miserable script.
The cinematography department mostly did a good job. Some of the scenes are very pretty. The sensitive serenity of other scenes are ruined when, for no apparent reason, the cameraman does away with the tripod and shifts to the shaky-camera style that has gotten all trendy the last few years (my headache-inducing bane!).
The audio seems a little rough. Some of the interpretations (I don't believe there's any of Tim or Jeff's original music there) are lovely, but the levels jump around a bit. A lot. And Badgely does his darndest to hit the wailing falsettos characteristic of Jeff, but let's face it - it wouldn't ever sound as good. His voice could have been put through a compression filter with a bit of delay or something - anything to take the edge off his voice, which really starts to grate on one's nerves with some extended scenes of him singing to himself. Though the movie is not for want of detailed post-production audio editing - for some reason a few scenes are filled with annoying electronic whines of amp-feedback or TV static, filled to such an extent as to sound like tinnitus as it verges on being painful (more headaches)(Why??).
To sum: the movie fails mostly due to a complete lack of storytelling. The potentially very interesting story of paralleled talent and tragedy, and the intricate inter-generational themes behind it, are all left untouched.
I have a healthy appreciation for Jeff Buckley and was curious to see a bit about his father's life, as well as explore the relationship between the two. Unfortunately what we're given is a string of thematically incoherent scenes, too lacking in substance to be considered vignettes. There's almost no progression - plot doesn't unfold, themes aren't explored, we never dig deeper into the characters who don't develop anyway.
With each new scene I found myself initially engaged, partly as relief from the having the last meaningless scene end, and partly in anticipation that the next might delve into something a bit more meaty and substantial. Alas, each is as directionless as the last.
Penn Badgley, as Jeff Buckley, is quite convincing as a troubled creative mind. Though many times the wistful aloofness does not endear himself to us. The character lacks charm. Tim Buckley is thematically central to the movie, but the script effectively leaves him with the status as a secondary character, appearing in a jumble of cut scenes smattered here and there. Imogen Poots does well as an unnecessarily cliché love interest. The acting was overall quite good, but lets us down with a miserable script.
The cinematography department mostly did a good job. Some of the scenes are very pretty. The sensitive serenity of other scenes are ruined when, for no apparent reason, the cameraman does away with the tripod and shifts to the shaky-camera style that has gotten all trendy the last few years (my headache-inducing bane!).
The audio seems a little rough. Some of the interpretations (I don't believe there's any of Tim or Jeff's original music there) are lovely, but the levels jump around a bit. A lot. And Badgely does his darndest to hit the wailing falsettos characteristic of Jeff, but let's face it - it wouldn't ever sound as good. His voice could have been put through a compression filter with a bit of delay or something - anything to take the edge off his voice, which really starts to grate on one's nerves with some extended scenes of him singing to himself. Though the movie is not for want of detailed post-production audio editing - for some reason a few scenes are filled with annoying electronic whines of amp-feedback or TV static, filled to such an extent as to sound like tinnitus as it verges on being painful (more headaches)(Why??).
To sum: the movie fails mostly due to a complete lack of storytelling. The potentially very interesting story of paralleled talent and tragedy, and the intricate inter-generational themes behind it, are all left untouched.