By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Chris Hegedus | D.A. Pennebaker
Country: united_states
Year: 2003
Running time: 95
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0308672
Peg says: “Veteran music documentarian D. A. Pennebaker (ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS) and Chris Hegedus (STARTUP.COM) team with journalist Roger Friedman to play old-home week with legendary soul singers in New York, Chicago, and Memphis. Friedman is an annoyingly enthusiastic presence at first, but he gradually recedes and the music takes over. There’s Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), reminiscing about his drug-selling days on Eighth Avenue (‘same as Belushi, cocaine and heroin) and crooning ‘When Something Is Wrong with My Baby’ at a tribute concert for Isaac Hayes (as beautiful and bad-ass as ever: ‘Don’t Let Go’ and ‘Shaft’ are standout moments in this film). There’s Mary Wilson, the ‘middle Supreme,’ who won the legal right to the group’s songs and name for her glitzy road show. There’s the inimitable Wilson Pickett, still electric on stage and caressing his $6000 Versace silk jacket in Friedman’s face. Some of the finest performances are, unfortunately, cut short by insertions of tepid interview footage, and the film slows to a dead crawl just as it starts to get smokin’.