View all comments (1) - Comment on this review
Standing in the Shadows of Motown Movie Review
Standing in the Shadows of Motown Review

"Standing in the Shadows of Motown" Overview

Rating: PG
2002
Cast and Crew
Director : Paul JustmanProducer : Paul Justman,Sandford Passman,Alan Slutsky
Screenwiter : Walter Dallas,Ntozake Shange
Starring : Richard 'Pistol' Allen,Jack Ashford,Bob Babbitt,Benny 'Papa Zita' Benjamin,Eddie 'Bongo' Brown,Bootsy Collins,Johnny Griffith,Ben Harper,Joe Hunter,James Jamerson,Uriel Jones,Montell Jordan,Chaka Khan,Gerald Levert,Joe Messina,Me'Shell NdegéOcello,Joan Osborne
Ever wonder who was playing in the band while Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The
Supremes, and other Motown legends were singing their guts out?
If the answer to this question is remotely interesting to you, run, don't walk,
to see Standing in the Shadows of Motown, the documentary reintroducing the
not-quite-famous Funk Brothers to the world after decades of obscurity.
While I like music and I like music history, Standing is unfortunately totally
overwrought, deeply biased, and wholly designed to make you feel guilty about
ignoring what the filmmakers clearly believe are The Greatest Musicians of All
Time. Near the beginning of the film, filmmaker Paul Justman drops into a
record store and randomly asks if the shoppers like Motown music, then asking,
"Well did you ever stop to think about who was playing in the band with those
guys!?" His tone is palpably vitriolic and, honestly, whiney.
But who can blame those poor saps in the record stores? I'd never heard of the
Funk Brothers, just like I couldn't tell you who currently plays backup for
Sting, Eminem, or Christina Aguilera. And I don't care.
Sure, it's a stretch to compare Christina to Diana Ross, but you catch my
drift. No one remembers the bands because it's the vocals that stick in your
mind. Sure, the Funk Brothers are very good, but are they exemplary to the
point of deserving their own film? Not really. Justman and the surviving Funk
Brothers obviously feel differently: At one point a bandmember goes so far as
to say, "Deputy Dawg could have been singing," because it was their music that
made the songs into hits. Uh huh.
Ironic then that a large chunk of Standing in the Shadows of Motown is consumed
by what appears to be a small, manufactured reunion concert, wherein the
remaining Funk Brothers play their old hits while contemporary artists sing the
words. I don't know if it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but having one-hit
wonders like Me'Shell NdegéOcello and Joan Osborne butcher the vocals is about
as cruel as one can get to Motown. (Osborne massacres "Heat Wave" by taking the
memorable chorus down an octave.) I'll let you draw your own conclusions about
the presence of Bootsy Collins and Chaka Khan (who inexplicably won a Grammy
for her work here).
The good news is that the Funk Brothers are themselves full of history and
lively stories, and when Justman gives them a chance to talk they are very
engaging with tales of old Motown. It's too bad that the narration (over stock
photos and, believe it or not, re-enactments) is unfortunately pedantic and
useless, and the reunion concert footage is so God-awful I wanted to
fast-forward through it. And that, sadly, is the bulk of the film.
In the final analysis, no matter what you think of the Funk Brothers, they
undoubtedly deserve a far better movie than this.
Say, one of them's no brother!
|
Review by Christopher Null
|
Christopher Null.
I hope his name is an indication of his presence. Null meaning nothing.
Joan Osbourne makes most of the original singers of motown hits look like
amateurs. Injecting her jazz into the songs is nothing short of brilliant. Joan
is not a ridiculous diva, she's a singer. Arrangement, voice, in tune and
powerful Joan Osbourne is/has slipped through the net of BIG stars
somehow...just shows you that the pundits know very little about music and are
more concerned with high heels and feather boas.
View all comments (1) - Comment on this review





