Taking Woodstock (2009)

40 years after the landmark music festival, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered in peace, we get a movie detailing what into making the concert possible, and how it affected the people around it.

Now that sounds like the premise to a pretty decent little film, and Ang Lee's new effort Taking Woodstock is, for the most part, enjoyable. It's sported by a likable cast (Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and others) and helmed by a director who should be capable of handling such material.

Martin, who is a very funny and unique stand-up comic (if you haven't, check out his Comedy Central special Person), plays Elliot Teichberg, a young man who has sacrificed a job at New York to go upstate and help his parents (Staunton and Henry Goodman) turn around their crumbling motel. Elliot notices that a concert has been kicked out of its original location, and sees an opportunity to make money. And then everything snowballs into Woodstock.

The movie never really focuses on the concert on stage, where Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead are presumably playing, but focuses on Elliot as he wanders around the concert, trying to get to the stage but being sidetracked by the many colorful characters that show up. Schreiber, who is in drag here, steals the show.

But the movie is littered with clichés of the time. Elliot takes acid and suddenly his eyes are opened to the entire world. His mother fulfills every requirement of the greedy jew, charging extra for towels or soap. The uptight parents take brownies and strut around. And around and around it goes, never ending.

I actually really want to see the three hour documentary Woodstock (1970) which I feel would be a better representative to that "awesome" time everyone reminisces about. Here, Ang Lee falls far short.

The movie has a lot of interesting ideas presented in the movie, but it never fully realizes any of them. Staunton's character has a revelation that is so stereotypical you expect her to turn into a rat, Elliot's dad has the cheesiest confession this year, and the movie never really gives you a sense of the community and camaraderie the hippies had with each other.

Ultimately, the movie is forgettable. I doubt that when I wake tomorrow I will be thinking much about this film. And soon I will forget its existence completely. Which is a shame, because Woodstock probably deserves more justice then this. Though it already has a three hour documentary. I think I'll put that on my Netflix.