Crib Notes

(photo © Jonathan Wenk/TWC 2007)

In this week’s issue I took a rather broad-sided look at the slew of rock-related movies that have been released in 2007, “Rocking in a hard place” — particularly the rock biopic, which seems to have been practically reinvented whether as a documentary or as a feature film.

I’d dashed off the piece for a Wednesday deadline but failed to check to see if all the movies mentioned were still in local theaters. Fortunately, all but one of the films, Kurt Cobain: About a Son, are still around, most notably the recently released Todd Haynes film I’m Not There — about Bob Dylan.

Also fortunate is the fact that our film critics have reviewed each of the movies, so I’d definitely recommend checking out Felicia Feaster’s reviews of I’m Not There and Control, as well as Curt Holman’s reviews of Across the Universe and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. One caveat: A quick glance at our Movie Times reveals that Across the Universe, Control and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten are all hanging by a thread. (Both Control and Strummer have moved over to the Plaza Theatre, which for some reason does have its own kind of rock ’n’roll vibe.)

Finally, a question: What’s your favorite rock ’n’ roll movie, or rock biopic, for that matter?

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Despite his indelible association with the punk movement, rock filmmaker Julien Temple didn’t become friends with Joe Strummer until the final years of the Clash co-founder, who died in 2002 at age 50. Temple’s documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, deftly chronicles Strummer’s life, giving equal weight to the wilderness years that followed the Clash’s breakup in the 1980s. They shared a love of the Glastonbury festival, chronicled in Temple’s recent documentary.

Film critic Curt Holman has written insightful reviews of both The Future Is Unwritten (opening today, Nov. 9, at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema) and Glastonbury. I recently got a chance to interview Temple (The Filth and the Fury) and discuss his latest work and the challenge of making a compelling rock biography.

Also, feel free to check out my review of Pat Gilbert’s excellent Clash bio, Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash, while I was at Gambit Weekly in New Orleans.

Note: This really is just a snippet of a 25-minute interview. Send your comments if you’d like to hear more. Be glad to edit up another, extended version for you Clash fans. Also, just for the record, for a man who’s pretty much a legend unto himself, Temple’s incredibly accessible and engaging and didn’t seem to snicker too loudly when I confessed to being a Clash fan. (Talk about your Chris Farley moments.)

David Lee Simmons interviews Julien Temple - Download

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