Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee‘s newest film spends too much time covering Elliot Teichberg’s (Demetri Martin) outing and screwed up relationship with his immigrant parents, and only dipping it’s toes in the free loving, music festival it borrows it’s name from. Mis-marketed and at times mis-directed, Woodstock is rarely the funny adventure comedy its trailers and marketing execs want you to groove to. Contrary to what they want you to believe, Taking Woodstock is a young man’s coming of age or coming out of the closet tale that happens to be surrounded by the most famous music festival to take place in upstate New York.
The plot hinges on a Jewish family’s inability to make their mortgage payments – thus forcing the youngest member to invite half of the United States to his neighborhood for what would be known as the last attempt at a free society. Unfortunately instead of concentrating on this concert, the film is plagued with scene after scene of the problems the concert had – set alongside the problems Elliot is having leaving his parents behind and starting his new life as an openly homosexual artist. There are dabs here and there of some inkling of a back story . . . hidden somewhere is his past life in New York City where he clearly led his life sans judgment or inhibitions.
Overall Lee has taken a great story of free love and some of the greatest musicians to ever overdose on their choice of sin and overshadowed it with a young man’s struggle to confront his sexuality with his family and with a small town. It seemed like two separate films that someone tried to seamlessly edit together forgetting that each story is important on it’s own.
