“A low-wattage film about a high-wattage event” is how The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt
Ang Lee‘s “Taking Woodstock,” which premiered Friday at the Cannes Film Festival. Variety’s Todd McCarthy hasn’t weighed in yet, but his former colleague Anne Thompson (whose blog is still hosted by the struggling trade rag) is also
with faint praise: “it works for me” is about as enthusiastic as she gets. Eric Kohn at
is less diplomatic: “Considering the iconic event at its center, the most surprising aspect of ‘Taking Woodstock’ lies with the decision to make it into a rather flat comedy. Even with the ever-versatile Ang Lee behind the camera, this messy historical fiction plays like a two hour ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, and not a very good one, either.” Early reviews are divided on the lead performance of much-hyped comic Demetri Martin, who plays the gay son of hotel owners who obtained a permit for the festival. Focus Features plans to open the flick in wide on August 14, recently abandoning plans for a platform release. In the specialty film word, more often than not that means they want to as much business as possible before the flick is done in by reviews and word-of-mouth. (Photo: Focus Features)
