crownofsprats
You really have to know what to expect with this one. If you're not already a fan, this is not going to make you one, so just walk on. Otherwise, crack open a cold one and roll another number - you're still definitely gonna need it if you want to make it all the way through this ride. Chances are you'll fall asleep halfway through and won't wake up till the morning comes.Neil Young wanted to make a movie with his band buddies where they all hang out on Neil's ranch dressed up in old-timey clothes, spouting all sorts of cryptic nonsense. Sometimes they take dumps, stylishly filmed with a super-8 or some other analog film camera. On occasion, they rock out. Neil mostly sits in a chair, remarking on the moon, playing a lick here and there, generally looking old. He does this with the usual poise and dignity inherent in his loner persona. He is at his most aged and lonesome when he's singing a solo rendition of Pocahontas, backing himself with a big pipe organ.The camerawork is terrible (they clearly had tripods and all that stuff, they just chose not to use them). The acting doesn't really qualify as acting, since these dudes are not really pretending to be or do anything other than what you'd imagine them to be doing on any given weekend. The writing? I guess they had some ideas... The soundtrack has cool moments, except the part where they overdrive the hell out of the harmonica track. Horrible production choice!Honestly though, I'd still much rather waste an hour of my life hanging out with Neil over here in ranchland than waste even a minute of my life looking at a TV screen. And no, I'm not talking about motion pictures...you know what I mean.
bettycjung
3/26/18. Not for everybody. I like Neil Young, so the music part was great, not so much the disparity between the music and the background scenery (that had very little to do with the music). Watch this (or, maybe just listen to it) for Neil Young.
st-shot
Self described "auteur" Darryl Hannah stumbles around some mighty pretty territory while her cinematographer Adam Vollick fumbles to get acquainted and haphazardly experiment with his camera in this disjointed slacked jawed oater that features legendary rocker Neil Young and his band playing cowboys. With only snippets of jarring visual interest and the ambiguity of the early moments dissolving into heavy handed pretense it takes a full half hour for Paradox to pull out of its scattered torpor as Neil and the boys come to the rescue with a stirring rendition of his Peace Trail. The respite remains brief however as Young takes one of his most beautiful acoustical works Pocohantes and turns it into a dirge with a portable pipe organ. The rest of his score simply provides intrusive bombast to enigmatic skies, glorious aspens and grazing animals (deservedly noted in the credits since they give the best performances) while cowgirl in the sand Hannah incoherently presents her surreal vision with an 8 1/2 version of two cowpokes tethered to the ground flying kite like above the tent where Neil and the boys perform. Paradox is similar in many ways to Young's wandering Journey Through the Past made in the 1970s. After the massive success of the documentary Woodstock Hollywood was eager to tap into the hippie phenomena and sought out Young who enlisted fellow pop troubadours that he would use and lose according to his needs over the years Crosby, Stills and Nash to make the same rambling self satisfied stream of conscious mess that Paradox is. This time around he's footing the bill and got a new band but the thrust remains the same, his presentation the nostalgic turn today that Lawrence Welk was offering his graying audience back in the 70s. Only the uniforms have been changed to protect the cool.
