Film Review - Taking Woodstock (2009)
Ang Lee's Hippie Dramedy Embraces Subtlety Over High Vibes
Aug 28, 2009
Director Ang Lee has already brought to light the "hangover from The Sixties" with his exquisitely nuanced 1997 film The Ice Storm, so it is fitting that he has now gone back further to revel in a time before the good vibes of the hippie generation soured.
His new film Taking Woodstock is less concerned with the well documented free concert that delivered "Three Days Of Peace & Music" than it is about the social ramifications of the event and the ripples of change issued forth from the heart of the whirlwind event on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in quaint Bethel, New York.
Demetri Martin In Wonderland
Deadpan stand-up comedian Demetri Martin portrays Elliot Tiber, a sort of Jewish Luke Skywalker forced to abandon his creativity and freedom in order to help his aging, ailing parents (Henry Goodman and a ferocious Imelda Staunton) run their ramshackle El Monaco Motel in the White Lake area of the Catskills.
When not leading a double life in the city, Tiber manages to find the time to act as President of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, thus gaining a permit to host an arts and crafts festival on his property. No stranger to the hippie movement, he also allows a nudist theater troupe (led by the affable Dan Fogler) to squat in his barn.
When news hits of the nearby town Wallkill pulling out of a deal to host a massive music festival, Tiber suddenly realizes that he just may have the golden ticket. Once Elliot makes contact with the curiously optimistic concert promoter Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) and his well-funded cronies, his family's monetary woes are erased and the town gets transformed into a patchouli-scented Wonderland.
Not that everyone is enthralled with the idea. Locals fearful of a full-bore hippie invasion refuse to speak to Elliot and paint anti semitic profanity on his property. The townie most pleased by the event is Emile Hirsch's vet Billy, a troubled youth yearning to return to Vietnam where strange people like himself can be considered normal.
Ang Lee's Circus Comes To Town
It's hard to resist the subsequent deluge of motion and energy that invades the sleepy little town. A number of fascinating characters are introduced, from Liev Schreiber's cross-dressing ex-Marine and a newly converted flower power motorcycle cop to a pair of acid-loving festival attendees who create their own concert within the confines of their hyper-colorful van.
Elliot's adventures on the outskirts of the actual show are the heart of this story, as he comically never makes it to the main stage despite numerous attempts. As the film's title implies, he "takes" the transformative Woodstock experience and allows it to alter his mind - especially with regards to his closeted sexuality and personal issues with his seemingly damaged parents.
Some of the events in James Schamus' script feel forced (like Tiber's folks buzzing on hash brownies, Elliot spawning the "free concert" notion and the possibly apocryphal depiction of him introducing Lang to Yasgur), yet most of this is countered by the copious talents of the Academy Award-winning director Lee.
For example, a remarkably groovy trip sequence that mutates the crowded hillsides into undulating waves of light works extremely well. So do simpler scenes establishing the calm, cricket-populated summer evenings in rural New York before its citizens go from watching the evening news to becoming the news.
One complaint is that the film version of Tiber feels too tame and Martin is never allowed to stretch his legs as an actor. Still, his charm and deadpan demeanor make him a good fit for this altered character. While many will also feel cheated by the lack of onstage fireworks courtesy of Hendrix and The Dead, the emphasis of Taking Woodstock is clearly on the feedback effect of this one young man's positive "experience" with the counterculture. 7/10
- Taking Woodstock
- Starring Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Eugene Levy
- Directed by Ang Lee
- Written by James Schamus, adapted from the book by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte
- Running time: 120 minutes
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