Rufus Wainwright
All I Want
[Universal, 2005]
I have to get this bias of mine out of the way right now: I hate singer-songwriters, especially sensitive ones. They piss me off beyond belief. That being said, I do understand the power that they have over most music fans, especially ones who don’t actually listen to anything beyond lyrics.
With All I Want, fans get access to the Wainwright ‘legend’ through interviews with friends and family – some of whom are other contractually-bound musicians like Elton John, Sting, and the Scissor Sisters – home videos from Rufus’s childhood in Montreal, and lots and lots of discussion about sex. Wainwright freely admits to a rabidly licentious sex life, particularly during the period of his life when crystal meth dominated his party life. There’s a lot of talk about Rufus’s music, but we don’t actually get much beyond the occasional album track and 30-second performance clip that serves to tie interviews together.
That last note should prove the direction that this DVD has taken in presenting its subject. All I Want is a biopic and not a performance piece. There is almost the bare minimum of live performances as required on a DVD about a musician. As well, despite the superficially contentious issues that are raised – homosexuality, drug addiction, sexual decadence, and emotionally distant family members – there is absolutely nothing to analyse or dissect, no ‘story-behind-the-story’. With no critical insight, all we are left with is a self-congratulatory group-hug of Universal artists. All I want is a better DVD than this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment