A beautiful and genuinely moving meditation on the cost of fame for one briliant, but dangerously flawed, young musician. This engaging documentary has to be one of the most sympathetic and gripping films to come out of the 'tortured musical genius' stable.
From the chaotic mess of this talented artist's life we catch a fleeting glimpse of the humanity often lacking from many music docs. In some ways it's a classic underdog story of one man versus, erm, well just about everything, and at times the home video archive makes it feel like a weird jerry-built road movie spiralling out of control from a life of constant touring. But, although there's destruction and darkness for sure, it never descends into melancholia and there's something undeniably life affirming about St Thomas's refusal to compromise.
However, the real revelation for me, was his music, which I've been playing since watching it. Also, as a fan of Lambchop, it was interesting to catch their involvement in his studio recordings. It reminded me a little of the Anton Newcombe, Roky Erickson, and Daniel Johnston films, so if you like those guys you get an idea of what to expect, but with a Scandinavian twist. Worth adding that the film is nearly entirely in English language despite it's Norwegian setting. A compassionate and poetic piece of film making.
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