Decisions on concert movies are the easiest to make for a movie-goer. If you like the group, you'll want to see the movie. After all, you know the kind of music you'll get, and it's cheaper than a concert, though the fidelity of the sound may disappoint. If you don't like the group, wild horses, or even the exhortations of a critic, will not get you into the auditorium.
And that's the way it is with "Neil Young Trunk Show," which opens today.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, who also directed "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," released four years ago, "Trunk Show" was shot over two nights of performances by Young and his group in Upper Darby, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. The earlier film, shot in Nashville, was carefully staged. This one was caught on the fly by Demme and his camera crew, with nice long takes and not so many close-ups as to become distracting.
Young plays a myriad of instruments, though the music is driven by drummer Ralph Molina's hard-driving beat. Other musicians include Bern Keith, Rick Rosas, Anthony Crawford and Young's wife, Pegi. Eric Johnson, wearing a red blazer and carrying a brush, wanders around the stage, and backstage, pretending to be a painter.
The film, only 83 minutes long, moves rapidly, though it can seem interminably long when Young stands and repeats a quatrain, "Ocean sky/ Sea of blue/ Let the sand/ Wash over you," over and over and over and over again.
Plays today through Sunday at Webster University, today and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Sverdrup Building, 10 p.m. in Winifred Moore Auditorium, Sunday at 7:30 in Moore Auditorium
–Joe