32 BEATROUTE OCTOBER <strong>2019</strong>
Screen Time THE BOSS OF THE BIG SCREEN New Bruce Springsten concert doc Western Stars brings the late-career album masterpiece to the screen By PAT MULLEN I n a year full of nostalgic Baby Boomer music docs, it’s a joy to watch a legend like Bruce Springsteen reinvent himself. Western Stars, which opens this month after debuting at TIFF in September, brings the Boss’s album of the same name to the big screen. This concert doc bears the soul of its creator. Western Stars, the album, is a late-career masterpiece for Springsteen that enlivens his abilities as a storyteller with the heart and soul of country music. It’s an elegiac collection full of metaphors of open roads, cowboy boots, and heartaches. The music of Western Stars is tailor-made for the movies with its rich imagery and country twang that pulls at heartstrings without hitting false notes. Western Stars, the film, features the lone concert of the album, which Springsteen performed in his 100-year-old barn. Accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra and his wife Patti Scialfa, Springsteen plays the album for his closest friends. The result is a front row ticket to the most intimate Springsteen show one could see. The songs play out in full with Springsteen reflecting on the music between tracks. These interviews and monologues evoke a musician’s asides performed between songs at a concert. Instead of simply standing there and talking as the band catches its breath, Springsteen moves away from the stage, outside the barn, and into the Wild West. Images evoke the movies of John Ford with Springsteen’s tales of cowboys and rugged roads. The staging of the candid moments is intermittently cheesy, like a shot of Springsteen in his old truck as he talks to the camera with a grin that says, “Howdy, partner!” but they’re fair reflections of a life well lived. These interludes provide intimate glimpses into Springsteen’s life as home movies reveal moments with Patti and their kids as Springsteen savours the journey that’s brought him to the creative crossroads of Western Stars. Springsteen unpacks the significance of the songs while reflecting on his life that’s gone by, noting how the role of the car has changed but that the open road remains a songwriter’s strongest metaphor for freedom. His reflections on bygone Hollywood stars whose cowboy boots have been laid to rest makes the performance of the film’s title track extra poignant. Here is Springsteen stripped and vulnerable. At 70, he knows it’s a blessing to don his boots at the beginning of a new day. Watching Springsteen confront his age and put his fears of loneliness and legacy into song, the film becomes as moving as it is entertaining. The buy-it-the-minute-you-hear-it soundtrack is fuller and richer than the album. The sweeping orchestration widens the scope of the music and lends it extra gravity as the notes reverberate in the acoustics of Springsteen’s hallowed barn, a warmly inviting setting for the concert. The film is lushly shot and mixed beautifully to let the music take advantage of the theatrical experience. Pulling double-duty as performer and director, working with long-time collaborator Thom Zimny, Springsteen proves himself a boss on both sides of the camera. Springsteen looks forward when many stars of his generation have their eyes in the rear-view mirror. Western Stars speaks to Springsteen’s reinvention as an artist as he conquers another frontier. Western Stars hits theatres <strong>October</strong> 25. A Star Reborn In Judy, Renée Zellweger delivers a noteperfect performance as Judy Garland By PAT MULLEN T he forecast for 2020 predicts the gayest Oscars yet. After Taron Egerton wowed us as Elton John in Rocketman, Renée Zellweger delivers a note-perfect performance as Judy Garland in Judy. Wager good money on the stars taking home matching Oscars for portraying these queer icons. Judy is Zellweger’s comeback. After being the “it girl” of the early 2000s with hits like Bridget Jones’s Diary, Chicago, and Cold Mountain, Zellweger’s stock vanished. Star persona and performance blur in this portrait of an actor struggling to understand her purpose when the spotlight’s gone. Zellweger is heartbreakingly good in realizing Garland’s vulnerability. Judy focuses on the final year of Garland’s life. At 46, roughly Zellweger’s age during her slump, Garland is off to London for a string of concerts. Broke, blacklisted, and fighting a custody battle, Garland is at rock bottom offering show-stopping numbers one night and drunken embarrassments the next. Flashbacks to Garland’s work on The Wizard of Oz, toiling under the tyrannical and controlling producer Louis B. Mayer, the film portrays Garland as a woman who was never allowed to control her own life. But where Garland’s pain was overcome by alcoholism and drug abuse, Zellweger channels her agony and loneliness into life-saving, transformative art. Using her trademark pouty lips and sad, shimmering eyes, Zellweger doesn’t disappear within the character. While her resemblance to Garland is uncanny, this is very much a Renée Zellweger performance. It pays tribute to an icon while reminding us of another’s worth. It’s not all pain and heartache, though. Judy rings with the joie de vivre that continues to endear Garland to audiences. Zellweger performs Garland’s signature tunes in knockout numbers. Recording all the songs live, Zellweger’s vocals capture Garland at her highest and lowest. A star is reborn with Zellweger’s career-best performance in Judy. Judy is playing in select theatres now. OCTOBER <strong>2019</strong> BEATROUTE 33