Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic, 2 Jul 2004
This is amazing.
I haven't been a listener of Wilco since the second album, but picked up this as I'd heard that Jeff Tweedy does a couple of old Uncle Tupelo tunes on the extras disc.
However, I'm blown away by it all(and so was my wife who became a convert by the end). The film itself is a brilliantly shot masterpiece of a working band making an album and playing some shows. This is not your typical haggiographical rockumentary, but a real warts and all thing. The story that unfolds in the film is astounding, and reveals a fascinating picture of the music industry today.The whole package is also so loaded with extras, like lots of live material, a 'making of..' film, Jeff Tweedy live solo stuff, & a great booklet too.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How a trainwreck became a triumph, 14 Jan 2008
Sam Jones thought he was going to make a film about Wilco recording their next album. Instead, he got a rather terrifying story about power struggles, corporate incompetence and a band defying nightmarish circumstances to emerge with a classic album and new contract.
For a start, Wilco drummer Ken Coomer was fired on the first day of shooting. Jones' camera doesn't actually record the incident, but it does capture the subsequent power struggle between main songwriter Jeff Tweedy and other main songwriter Jay Bennett. The dramatic high point of this story is a tense conversation in the control room between Tweedy and Bennett concerning an edit between two songs - a classic case of the conversation not being about what it ought to be about. It climaxes when the hunched and dogged Tweedy slips out of the room to throw up in a toilet down the corridor. ("I've always had migraines," he mutters as the camera watches him washing his face.)
The film is soon about the ever-widening gap between Bennett and the rest of the band. Bennett doesn't come across very well, tetchy and prone to make bitter little remarks under his breath, but then Tweedy himself comes across as one of the most awesomely passive-aggressive people ever to front a major band - soft-voiced, stubborn as a mule and a master at deploying a look of baffled suffering for the purpose of emotional blackmail. Sure enough, Bennett has soon been ejected from the band, and Tweedy's happiness and relief are almost physically palpable.
Then the film changes story, because what happened then was that Reprise Records decided that they didn't like the album and they kicked Wilco off the label. In a stroke of genius by the band and its management, and an act of colossal stupidity by the label, Wilco negotiated a parting deal whereby they were given the master tapes for free. They released the album on their website for free, Nonesuch Records eventually signed them up for a much better deal than they'd ever had at Reprise, and the album, when it was released on CD, got reviews to die for and was Wilco's biggest ever seller. As a direct result of the Wilco debacle, several members of Reprise's senior management lost their jobs.
As somebody points out at the end of the movie, the ultimate irony of all this is that Wilco were dismissed partly because Reprise's ultimate owner, Time/Warner, were cutting corners after a merger. But Nonesuch is also owned by Time/Warner, who ended up paying for the same record twice. You have to laugh.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
you didn't really, 29 Sep 2007
As a document of the tension between releasing credible music while dealing with both record company machinations and internal rivalries, `I Am Trying To Break Your Heart' largely succeeds. Having decided that Jeff Tweedy's tortured nature can only authentically be represented in grainy black and white and low-key lighting, Sam Jones follows Wilco as they create, record and promote `Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'. The record that Time Warner AOL ended up paying for twice, once for the initial sessions, prior to dropping the band 24 hours after it was delivered, and then again when another branch of the multi-national picked them up and bought it back. In the meantime the band had already made the product available on their own web-site. Jones' restless panning and zooming irritates, and although he does have good access to the band and record company honchos, the erratic handheld camera detracts from the slow, meandering and frustrating creative process. This is an interesting insight into musicians' frustrations, including pressure from record company bosses to meet deadlines with the product they want, the hurt of being dropped, and the struggle to create something meaningful. Wilco are represented as somewhat naïve but determined artists more dedicated to their art than sales, up against the machinations of the industry. The somewhat self-obsessed Tweedy appears less interested in other's reactions or opinions than making his own point. This 90 minute film, interspersed with quick cuts of live gigs and backstage liggers, captures well the power dynamics within the band, including the sacking of needy Jay Bennett, and the boredom of touring with a young family. As such it is better than the standard record company promo.
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