Them Dirty Hippies

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It's one of them chicken-or-the-egg scenarios - did I enjoy Taking Woodstock so very much because I went in with extremely lowered expectations thanks to its mediocre reviews, or would I have liked it anyway? How will we ever know? We shan't, I suppose. WE SHAN'T. But enjoy the heck out of it I did. I mean, look there - I used the word "groovy." Do you know what that's like for me? Do you know what it was like for those dudes in Vietnam who got bamboo shoved up under their fingernails? Using "groovy" is like that, only mental-like.

See, what we've got with Woodstock is, I think, Ang Lee's answer to some of the criticism he got for Brokeback; criticism I think he probably took especially to heart. A lot of people - not me, obviously - complained that Brokeback gave us yet another tragic gay figure(s). Sad and dead and forever alone. So while sure, Demitri Martin's character isn't "out" per se, I'd say he's doing pretty well for it being 1969 and living (temporarily) in a small town. I mean, he gets 100% angst-free sex with a cute carpenter (and I think Ang left the sex off-screen also as a reaction to Brokeback, and how it's pup-tent scene swallowed the entire conversation) - not to mention that their first kiss is in the middle of a crowd who applauds them! I mean, it don't get less angsty than that, folks.

I'd absolutely argue that this and Brokeback are meant to be companion pieces, and while I don't think Woodstock reaches the level of Brokeback's magnificence, I think it doesn't have to to be a successful film. Where Brokeback told an epic story set in an empty landscape, Woodstock tells a small one in epic surroundings, and wrings pathos out of small-comedy rather than quiet-tragedy. And it works. It worked for me damn well.

As for some of the acting, for half the film I thought Demtri Martin had pulled back too far, that Elliot in his hands was too much of a wry observer that didn't seem entirely a part of the story he was in, but by the end I was completely enamored. Ellio0t is "the straight man," so to speak, surrounded by a cast of wackiness and eccentricity, and his arc is a sturdy yet slight one and Martin plays it nicely, with small gradations of his smile and a widening of his eyes. And I just have to say again that I really did like and appreciate the relative nonchalance of his gayness. He wasn't out but that was just a consequence of the time-period. Otherwise he had plenty of friends, gay and otherwise, and was relatively well-adjusted even with such insane parents. Speaking of, I don't think Imelda Staunton's performance is nearly as broad as it's been charged of being - I interact with older ladies here in New York (especially out in Queens) all the time just like her.

And I have no idea why, she didn't have that much to do, but I was wholly charmed by Mamie Gummer. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that she couldn't have fit more perfectly into the period. How right does she look? She's never really registered for me before but I couldn't take my eyes off of her here. Bravo, Meryl Streep's daughter! You might prove your worth yet.

And I suppose this wouldn't be a review at MNPP if I didn't give a brief shout-out to Emile Hirsch's penis. Hello, Emile Hirsch's penis! Nice to meet you. I hope we can make fast friends, and that you don't go away anytime soon.

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