Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents

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Audience Member Stuffed with rare footage from early promo films, proto-music videos, and concert clips, with interviews from collaborators and acolytes alike, the documentary, like the band, refuses to solve the riddles your average viewer would likely be most interested in, while answering questions you never knew needed asking in the first place. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The main reaction I had to this documentary about The Residents is a wish that the band had made the film themselves. But, of course, they may have, because director Don Hardy appears to have had access to a lot of presumably unseen footage from the early years of the 40-year-old band and members of the Cryptic Corporation (that oversee the business dealings of the band) were actively involved in editing and in front of the camera. Of course, we still don't know who the Residents actually are - but some of the old guys being interviewed sure seem to know a lot about their history. My regret is not really with the content shown (which is often truly weird) but instead with the rather formulaic approach taken here - this is really just another one of those music docos where you've got talking heads (including with fans/accomplices) interspersed with short clips of the band playing. There are some great clips but they never show you enough. Why can't the makers of these types of documentaries understand that fans would really want to see an entire song? Especially in the case of the Residents where the visual and multimedia aspects of their show are so astonishing! There are a couple of songs from the Commercial Album played on the 2013 fortieth anniversary tour that do run their full (short) length but that tour seems stripped down in comparison to earlier tours. Of course, if the band's output really is 60 albums (plus all sorts of other ephemera), then no single 90-minute film is going to be able to do justice to any one aspect of their career. But we do learn a lot about those eyeballs. Check their records, folks! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Documentary has not revealed anything new. Most of this info has been available for many years. I would have liked an album by album making of and how they created those videos. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A great documentary about The Residents- fantastic footage, high caliber interviews and just the right sense of humor. Those who are looking for an expose will be disappointed (though I feel like you can draw some reasonably intelligent conclusions if you're looking), this is really more of a love letter to the band, or perhaps even a great introduction. The Residents can be hard to stomach sometimes, and even then I've found a lot of their digital work hasn't aged terribly well, but Hardy does a great job of editing down and keeping the pace up and interest/energy high. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Well now - The Residents may just be the most important artists and musicians of the last 50 or so years. They also may not exist or be the same people who started out as The Residents. And this film - Theory of Obscurity is a very good place to begin to find out about their art. It is not really a history of The Residents but The Residents from different perspectives and why they matter so much. It is never less than fascinating and at times extraordinary. And the DVD has some of their marvellous films - what we would now call videos - except that doesn't really do them justice. Thoroughly recommended to anyone who care about art, music and has a pulse. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member http://cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/theory-of-obscurity-film-about.html Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents

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