Better
Living Through Circuitry (*)
review by Jon
Waterman
Normally, this is where I give a brief synopsis of what the
movie is all about. This time I can be nothing but brief. This
documentary discusses rave culture.
The reason I’m so brief is because that’s the
nature of the movie. It bounces back and forth like a typical
rave participant (sans glowstick, pacifier and backpack) between
topics, never staying on one long enough to fully realize it’s
potential. Many electronic musicians were interviewed for the
film, and they’re each given their own segments. Consider
that the film is only 85 minutes long and it’d be a safe
assumption to say that at least twenty groups/individuals get
a slice of screen time. You can see how that leaves very little
room for exploration or in depth coverage of any aspect. I
don’t know if they presume the audience has a short attention
span or if they just wanted to stay fair and cover every musician
equally or what. No matter what the excuse, it just ended up
too sporadic and quick rather than comprehensive and fulfilling.
If you’re looking to hear from the superstars of the
genre, then this would be the place to go for your one-stop
shopping needs. It features such names as Lords of Acid, Moby,
Crystal Method and Superstar DJ Keoki. We also hear from one
of the pioneers, Genesis P-Orridge, who gives his insight into
the music and provides a little history. But all we get from
the film is a little history. The main focus of the movie is
to pile information from as many different aspects as possible.
We hear about the clothing, the dancing, the set-up of the
shows, the mystique of the culture, the drugs, the graphic
design, and of course the music that brings it all together.
It sounds like the movie is nice and thorough. However, since
so much is covered in such a brief amount of time, with little
or no cohesion between the parts, it just falls flat. There’s
no real standardization in the approach to the segments. It
seems like they were randomly placed. The movie itself lacks
continuity. It starts off with music breaks featuring trippy,
psychedelic colors and shapes similar to what you’d see
on the video screen at a rave. Later, both of these discontinue.
It’s as if the filmmakers (director Jon Reiss and editor
Eric Zimmerman) just gave up on the concept and for some reason
felt no need to remove it from the beginning of the picture.
The whole effort is just a slap-dash of images and sounds
put together seemingly randomly and without any type of clear
focus. As a non-participant in rave culture, I can’t
say the movie offered me anything new or taught me something
I didn’t know about it already. I left with no added
appreciation for it all.
respond to jon@filmbrats.com
|