Filmme Fatale

Trailer for one of three documentaries I watched last night:

Pearl Jam Twenty (2011), dir. by Cameron Crowe

Only recently did I start actually listening to Pearl Jam, and while it came as a surprise to me that I actually do like them, I was even more surprised at how absolutely terrifying Pearl Jam’s explosive rise to fame really was for the band. This documentary features personal dialogs with each band mate - including the megadreamydreamy Chris Cornell - supplemented by tons of archival footage of Pearl Jam dating back to the band’s earliest days.

I’ve noticed, after watching a couple band documentaries of grounded groups who’ve gotten big real quick (Wilco, Sigur Ros), that there is a look that one seems to adopt after their career becomes its own entity beyond their control. Jeff Tweedy and Eddie Vedder both communicate with very quiet gestures that no matter what they do, complete control of their art is now impossible. They carry the emotional weight of people who have loved them, hired them, helped them get noticed and get signed, followed them, stalked them, tried to kill them, killed themselves, killed eachother. It’s bittersweet, and really made me think about why “getting famous” is always the end-all when really the apex of one’s art comes from the meaning the artist finds in their own work.

This documentary’s obviously great for any Pearl Jam fan who wants a more personal take on the band’s evolution, but it’s also a solid rock doc in general. Highlights definitely include the Ticketmaster trial, the hair (oh my god, all that hair), and learning about the phases through which the members of Pearl Jam constantly changed and bettered themselves as a group. Highly recommend; catch it under Netflix’s “Critically-Acclaimed Documentaries” section.