CANNES: ANG LEE GETS IT RIGHT
I haven’t heard the word “groovy” in a long time–in decades, perhaps. It is part of the dialog in Ang Lee’s mind-bending Taking Woodstock, shown in competition, accompanied by psychedelic images. This is stuff from the late ’60s, and until now, I, a veteran of the era, have not seen a rendering that wasn’t silly and over-the-top. (Ever see the movie 1969?)Critics here have not taken kindly to it, calling the story “thin.” Wrong. It is an accurate adaptation of the memoirs of Elliot Tiber (formerly Teichberg), played here by comic Demetri Martin.
Some have even criticized the acting of Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), who portrays Tiber’s Jewish mother from hell, Sonia. saying the characterization is overdone and stereotyped. Wrong. Staunton is astonishing. In fact, the entire cast is pitch-perfect. Emile Hirsch’s Billy, a mentally damaged Vietnam vet and Elliot’s old high school chum, stands out, with Liev Schreiber’s transvestite Vilma, in charge of concert security, a close second. Also impressive are Henry Goodman as Jake Teichberg, Elliot’s beaten-down father; Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, immortalized in song as the owner of the farm whose property hosted the famed three-day concert; and Jonathan Groff as Michael Lang, mellow young capitalist hippie who aids Elliot as he serves, sometimes unsuccessfully, as liaison between the localcommunity and the rock promoters.
That the film, from a screenplay by Ang’s regular collaborator and Focus Features CEO James Schamus, is structured around Elliot’s journey from good son trying to help his folks salvage a rundown Catskills motel to the center of a landmark “happening” (that saves the motel) is conventional. Fine, movies about “passages” often are. But this allows Ang to play with characters and situations around Elliot. We see hippies and non-hippies alike frolicking on Yasgur’s dairy farm and inside the Teichberg’s El Monaco Motel. We go inside Elliot’s head during his first acid trip, and–trust me–it is faithful to the experience. Ang gets it right, and does not let the special effects take over. Nature and people shift form in his eyes, but gracefully, even somewhat subtly.
There are funny scenes in Taking Woodstock, many involving Sonia’s parsimonious behavior and Elliot’s innocence in the midst of all the drugs and nudity, but I do not see the film as merely a comedy, as it is described in the pressbook. It is to this unique period what a good biopic is to a great artist. As always, Tim Squyres’s editing is crisp, and Eric Gautier’s work as cinematographer is top-notch. God knows how much was spent on music rights, but the soundtrack evokes the movement of love and peace with songs like Richie Havens’s Freedom, Canned Heat’s Going Up the Country, and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s Wooden Ships, just to name a few.
I’m not sure if the incorporation of a gay sub-plot works. Elliot is closeted to his folks, but out to his friends in New York City, where he is an interior designer. I realize that this is from Tiber’s book, that it is the Stonewall era, before gays rallied together to demand liberation, but in the film it nevertheless feels tacked on. But that is a minor criticism. In fact, I’m glad it’s there. The hippie movement was so heterosexual and so white that highlighting any minority is welcomed.
