A Poem Is a Naked Person

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Audience Member The most music-based 1.5 hours ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member I don't usually like documentaries, but I like Les Blank's. The ostensible subject here is Leon Russell, and he makes some valuable contributions to the film, but mostly it's the people in his orbit and the milieu in which he works that is the real subject. Sometimes they're in Oklahoma, sometimes Nashville, and who knows where else. There is no context, there are only sights and sounds that you can make of what you will. The musical cameos are great if you're a fan of country/roots/americana/whatever you want to call it of this era. Watching Leon "jiving" a visibly high strung Eric Anderson is pretty funny, and some of the down to earth philosophizing about art and life is pretty good, too. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member The best part is the music. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Commissioned and supposedly shelved by Leon Russell when he felt the finished product showcased writer/director Les Blank's own talents as a film maker instead of its intended purpose of reviving the career of Russell himself. That may have been a mistake on Russell's part, because the supremely gifted Blank not only captures the raw, raucous energy of his live shows, but exposes the audience to Russell's home state of Oklahoma in ways that give insight into how his distinctive sound emerged. Juxtaposing clips of musical giants Willie Nelson and George Jones alongside interviews and fascinating footage of the local citizenry and bandmates, Blank coaxes a kind of magic from his material that ultimately makes a more interesting and profound statement about Leon Russell than his music alone ever could. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member If it's a Leon Russell film you want, you might be disappointed. If it's a Les Blank film you want, there's one here fighting to get out. But Blank's one of my all-time faves, and, boy oh boy, are there moments: George Jones knocking out a masterful off-the-cuff "Take Me"; scorpions, snakes eating chicks, demolitions; Charlie McCoy, who played amazing shit on, um, HIGHWAY 61, BLONDE ON BLONDE, & JOHN WESLEY HARDING; the Olympia Brass Band (?); a Socratic inquisition on the nature of paranoia; glass-eating; and Eric Anderson nailing Russell's hustle. Like any Blank film, fascinating, but I've never bought Russell solo (um, who was the other session pianist gone weird vocalist?). Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Revolutionary in both concept and execution, Les Blank's inside view into the surreal mind and virtuoso musical abilities of renowned but later obscured sideman and fronting bluesman Leon Russell is a blend of straight-up concert film assembly and rough-around-the-edges frenetic energy that paints a tidy portrait of the artist as a man of his time and unique space. Blank takes an approach that is consistent with his past works and features a good dose of Russell and his comrades rambling existentially about love, life, and philosophy. For those uninitiated, it may prove vexing at times, but die hard fans of Blues and Americana/Roots music as well as pop and rock ballads will find plenty to enjoy here in both the quieter moments and the nicely shot and edited concert scenes that bring you right into Russell's orbit. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Poem Is a Naked Person

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