Not Very Taken

Catching up on movies from earlier this year, I recently watched Taking Woodstock. Directed by Ang Lee, it's a sort of "behind the scenes" look at the lives of the local townsfolk at the site where the Woodstock concert was held.

One of the things that got me interested in seeing the film was its unlikely choice of star: Demetri Martin. Like most people (who've heard of him at all), I first saw him in his occasional appearances on The Daily Show, doing his "Trendspotting" segments. Both there, and in his stand-up comedy special ("Demetri Martin. Person."), I thought he was quite funny. Oddly enough, in his television series, Important Things with Demetri Martin, I found him incredibly unfunny. Hoping to see more of the former than the latter, I was curious to see how he'd be in his first major film role.

Of course, the film isn't really an all-out comedy. There's a current of humor running throughout, but the movie is mostly just trying to create the vibes of the time. So perhaps not surprisingly, the Demetri Martin of this movie was between the two extremes -- he does alright in the film without ever really being exceptional; he elicits an occasional smile, but never an out loud laugh.

There are some other recognizable faces scattered throughout the film, including Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schreiber, and the always-making-a-movie Eugene Levy. None is really exceptional, but all feed into the authenticity of the picture being painted.

But the movie really runs out of having anything to say by about the halfway point. The preparations for Woodstock make for an entertaining plot as the main character slowly comes out of his shell. But when the concert arrives, there's not much left but to see in action things you all already knew went on at Woodstock. (Spoiler! People played in mud and did lots of drugs!) You sense that the filmmakers have affection for the event, but they don't really manage to make you feel it yourself.

So in the end, I give Taking Woodstock a C+. It wasn't quite a disappointment, but it wasn't really anything to recommend either.