By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Morgan Neville
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 91
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2396566/combined
Jason says: “I kind of wish 20 FEET FROM STARDOM hadn’t just come out and said that the story of backup singers is the evolution of popular music over the last fifty years, from gospel-trained black voices pushing stiff WASPs out of the spotlight to hyper-layered multitrack recording creating technical perfection at the cost of spontaneity. Oh, it tracks, right down to Phil Spector being a great producer but a human turd, but I was feeling so good about having figured that out myself a few minutes earlier. And while someone who actually knows something about music may disagree with this thesis, they’d be hard-pressed not to enjoy the stories of the talented ladies (mostly) used to illustrate it.
“They include Darlene Love, who as part of The Blossoms was one of the first groups of black background singers in the studios, and who has gone through seemingly every possible up and down since then. There’s Dr. Mable John, now a minister, and Claudia Lennear, a sex symbol back when she performed behind Ike & Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones. Lisa Fischer and Tata Vega are tremendously talented vocalists who flirted with solo careers but may have found their niche in harmonizing. And then there’s Judith Hill, who was to have her big break on Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ tour and is now weighing the benefits of steady work as a back-up singer and how it could keep people from thinking of her as a solo artist.
“The business of music, after all, is a capricious thing, and the movie is filled with stories of people either missing their windows for a solo career – which, especially if you’re an African-American woman from a working-class background like most of the film’s subjects, can be vanishingly small – or having their ambitions be, by all appearances, actively thwarted. Director Morgan Neville does well to track that with the evolution of the music business, but he also doesn’t make it so specific to that one industry; the subjects frequently talk about it in pragmatic enough terms that anybody who has ever felt stuck in a dead-end job or seen what they do automated is going to understand where they’re coming from.
“That is, happily, not the entirety of the film; as much as there are stories of ambition, Neville also spends a great deal of time examining why singing backup is itself a noble and important profession. There’s talk of how it replicates the call-and-response of gospel songs in church, and how the backup singers are the one singing the song’s ‘hook’, the part that people often remember even better than the lead vocal. Both the subjects themselves and an impressive collection of the artists they support – Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Sting, and others – do their best to explain, and there are a fair number of clips (and some new performances) to demonstrate. Neville breaks up the talking heads a little with graphics and nifty imagery (a flock of birds is, believe it or not, the perfect symbol for what the singers do), but mostly he lets the group speak (or sing) for themselves.
“And they’ve got material for some great show & tell. It’s kind of amazing to compare Lisa Fischer as she is now and as she was when attempting a solo career in the 1980s – she looks relieved to not be squeezed into tight outfits and to be able to concentrate on what she does best. Claudia Lennear’s story doesn’t quite end the way one might hope, but she’s still around and comparing her now and then gives the audience something interesting to think about. Judith Hill is young enough that her story is just beginning, but she’s already got some interesting anecdotes. And Darlene Love.. Man, there’s a part of her story that involves hearing ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ on the radio that I think would have killed a lot of lesser people, and it’s only one of the stories she can tell about a fifty-year career that a lot of people might have avoided discussing.
“Not to slight the other singers, especially Fisher and Hill, but Love becomes the star of this movie, and so it’s only fitting that the credits role over her singing lead and Bruce Springsteen backing her up. It would be neat if there was more of this – think of how great the songs in STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN were – but like the rest of the movie, it’s a pretty good way of getting some talented and overlooked folks up front. 4.5 cats
“Seen 5 May 2013 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #2 (Talk Cinema, digital).”
Chris says: “I see so many films that I sometimes forget what makes one exceptional. I guess a cynic could dismiss this documentary about backup singers as simply a slick, manipulative, entertaining crowd pleaser with a topic only a complete grouch wouldn’t love; there’s nothing really inaccurate in that assessment. And yet, from the opening credits introducing the film’s subjects via a lush montage of graphics and color set to Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, I was completely hooked, barely able to sit still in my seat (as I sensed most other people in the theater were, too).
“The women of 20 FEET FROM STARDOM run the gamut from 1960s and ’70s stalwarts such as Darlene Love (who sang on many vintage hits produced by Phil Spector) and Merry Clayton (best known for her thunderous part on The Rolling Stones’ ‘GIMME SHELTER’) to more contemporary performers such as Lisa Fischer (an idiosyncratic jazzbo who has sung with the Stones on tour for the past two decades) and Judith Hill, and up-and-comer who was selected to be Michael Jackson’s duet partner on his This Is It tour (which never came to pass because of his death). While each woman has a distinct narrative (and personality to match), similar motifs emerge in nearly every tale: a childhood spent singing in a church choir, appearances on Motown, r&b and rock and roll hits, industry recognition that eventually leads to a solo record deal, solo record(s) that flop, followed by a fall into obscurity or a retreat to backup parts.
“Although each tale has enough of a dramatic arc for an episode of VH-1’s BEHIND THE MUSIC, the film fortunately takes a higher road, channeling its focus towards the profession itself and its value. We not only learn how background vocalists came to be a thing in pop music but also specifically how they often add something essential to a musical piece. Songs are played with and without the backing vocals to illustrate this, and interviews with musical icons such as Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Bette Midler not only drive the point home but also provide a fascinating point of view from the literal (and metaphorical) opposite end of the stage or recording studio. So, you have a compelling topic, interesting subjects, considerable depth of inquiry and lots of great music—what more could you want? Well, what elevates this documentary from good to great is its confident, exciting rhythms. From scene to scene, it’s masterfully constructed, full of crisp, clear editing in which the whole film seems to effortlessly soar. In exploring all of these talented ladies’ triumphs and tragedies, it weaves together a wide-reaching tapestry that justifiably gives them their due. 5 cats”
Michael says: “This crowd-pleasing documentary explores the careers of a handful of back-up singers and their various attempts at taking the lead role to become solo artists. The central story focuses on Darlene Love, who wasn’t actually a back-up singer, but rather a ghost singer providing the lead vocals to a variety of Phil Spector’s girl-acts. Morgan Neville’s doc is certainly entertaining, and there are some lovely revelatory moments in the careers of many of these vocalists, but overall this film lacked cohesion, and at the same time it seemed fairly limited in scope. I also found it strange that while Darlene Love’s story was a good one, it seemed to be in a different movie than the others. Some great performances and these women were pretty interesting, but a movie, 20 FEET FROM STARDOM was decidedly not a star. 3.5 cats”