Release Date: Aug. 28
Director: Ang Lee
Writer: James Schamus
Cinematographer: Eric Gautier
Starring: Demetri Martin, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch
Woodstock memoir hijacked by co-star
In the middle of this true story about rundown motel employee Elliot
Tiber bringing the vaunted Woodstock festival to his hometown and
coming to terms with his own sexuality, Elliot (played by Martin)
stares at all the work going on around him, agog and overwhelmed by the
forces in motion. This also encapsulates how Martin’s first star turn
gets gobbled up like so many hits of blotter acid by the history
happening all around him. Martin’s straight-and-closeted performance
turns reactive, his epiphany lost in the film’s hallucinatory
centerpiece. Throughout, the screen splits and flips to handheld 16mm
footage in homage to the original Woodstock documentary, but Lee’s
trippy direction is too light to take hold. When Liev Schreiber stomps
into the film with his long blonde hair, tight mini dress, bulging
shoulders, and high heels, he proceeds to take Woodstock for himself.