StrayFeral
It was one week ago as I learned about this movie, saw all internet trailers and additional material, however I had no idea where to find it - It was not on Google Play Movies, not on Playstation Network, no idea of iTunes, as I don't own any Apple product. Finally two days ago noticed I could grab a digital copy from the official website and yesterday finally downloaded it and saw it.Let's start with the good things.The movie had good potential. Really interesting topic, good concept. Before the era when people learned how to use Google, there was huge lack of information. For years I suspected that except Italy, UK, Germany and France, great music in Europe used to spring out of some other source, but had no idea where. That was until I one day learned about a band called Lords of Acid. From there, I learned about other great Belgium music, which I listen to even these days. So when I first saw a trailer of a documentary which aims to tell more of how this and what else there happened, I was more than thrilled.Cinematics, sound - it is all good. I will not comment on the technical side of the movie. A good thing to mention here is actually that on the official site, when you buy the movie, you are given lots of technical options to chose from - you can watch the movie online or you can choose to download the movie from 360p up to 1080p video quality (about 4gb filesize) and there are plenty of subtitles to choose from.Yes, subtitles are important, because the actual movie audio is a mix of English, French and some other language, which I cannot recognize, but I suspect is Dutch. So you need subtitles for sure. I downloaded only the English subtitles and sat back to watch the movie. In my case, the laptop I used was a slow one, so I decided to watch the 720p version, but it was pretty good. No comments on the subtitles either.Important to mention is that there is a French version (I suspect - entire audio is in French) and there is a surround audio 5.1 version too.Enough about the technical side of the movie. As I said - it is all okay. Even more.Other good thing to say is - some famous guests were invited to be interviewed in the movie. But more on this later.Last - be sure to check the official movie Youtube channel, as there is some video material, some of it not shown in the movie.Now the bad things. As I said, the movie have an interesting concept. Definitely I never saw any other movie about the Belgium's music scene, so this one is the first one. Good thing! However what is the focus of the movie, is still totally unclear to me.According to the trailers, the topic of the movie is to shed light on the Belgium's electronic dance music scene. And while the title itself does not suggest this, the title's graphic is making a huge statement to suggest exactly the electronic music, by using the smiley, which used to be one of the Acid House music trademarks. So far so good. But this is not what we get exactly.It looks like the film maker wanted to go slowly, so this movie was I guess intended to be of a 3:00 hours duration, however it ended very unexpectedly. In brief: The movie begins with a short history lesson on what Belgium is, starting with the battle of Waterloo. It is all okay, if it was within 3:00 minutes all of it, but no. Not to mention the movie maker lost me in the beginning of the movie, with a phrase they mention, which sounded like "Belgium is a country which was invaded so many times, that they don't care who rule them anymore" (exact quotation needed). Um, well, I am sorry. No idea if the film maker is a Belgium citizen, I am not, but this is very disrespectful. Going forward. We have the World Wars, both of them, some focus on the music from these times. Okay, I get it that the concept here was to come from what people are Belgiums and how much they love to party, but wasn't the concept to focus on the electronic music?Still, the story of the mechanical organs with the cardboard songs was interesting. But... out of topic.Going forward - the jazz era, the soul era - lots of time spent on the soul music. Why? I look back at the title graphic with the smiley and I get confused. Going forward:The disco era and bam!! The punk era! Aw, what? Yes, the punk era!! Okay, I get it that the electronic music was underground and rebelious, but punk? Looking back the smiley and it looks back to me. At this point we are past the half of the movie. Nothing electronic yet.And there it finally begins. They introduce the sound which is there known as the New Beat. Applause. But only for a short time. Why - because it is good they captured the era from the perspective of the club owners and some performers, but the actual people to ask are the dancers, the regular visitors themselves! Because a music is first about the people. Refer to the movie "Northern Soul" (2014) - while it is not a documentary, it very well focuses on the experience from the perspective of the regular club visitors, the everyday common people. Now important - some of these are actually captured and shown on some of the videos on the movie's Youtube channel, but these things are missing from the movie itself.Also they missed to capture some of the essence of the music scene too. Remember I told you they invited to interview some famous performers? Well I actually saw two. First there was CJ Bolland, however he was presented with his whole first name, so I didn't recognized him at first. There is a lot of footage with Bolland talking. Some others, unknown to me are captured talking too. And then there is a dark-dressed woman, which is captured talking just a bit. And next to her they present her with the title "Nikkie Van Lierop, a.k.a. Jade4U". Wait! Who? Whaat? Jade4u herself!! Yes!! She is one of these people who made Belgium famous. Real famous. She is the first vocalist of Lords of Acid - not a famous, but a real cult music band. I bet she had lots to tell about and... And they didn't let her talk much, neither they mentioned much of who the Lords of Acid are. Okay, wait - you make a movie about the Belgium's electronic music scene and you don't mention much of the Lords? True, they show some very short footage, but that's all. And basically the movie dies and shows the credits a bit after that. They let some producers talk, CJ Bolland talk, Jade4u say few words and that's it.Honestly I was expecting much more. Not to mention the movie is made in 2012. Jade4u is actually the first vocalist of Milk Inc, before she quits them to join the Lords. And Milk Inc in turn is a nice guy called Regi Penxten, which initially got help from Praga Khan himself, on how to do certain sounds. Praga Khan on the other side is a cult member of the Lords of Acid. So for years Milk Inc are considered one of the best dance acts in Belgium and there are also Lasgo and Sylver, which made Belgium famous around 2001 and on. And no words on them. And I am not a Belgium citizen, but I happen to know these things. It is not just about Technotronic and 2Unlimited. Belgium influenced lots of the world, but only a fraction of this is told.So because of this, I rate this movie 5/10. The movie does not have clear focus on what the concept is, or otherwise said, it goes a bit out of concept. It could have been a great documentary and part of it still is, but there is a lot more to be desired.I was expecting to see Praga interviewed, maybe Regi, Linda Mertens, Evi Goffin and few more people. A bit of the post New Beat era people. The film maker spent so much time showing what was before the New Beat, he could go a bit after it too. And again - there are the Lords. But no.Anyway. Still a nice movie to see.Thanks for reading and give me a Like (click the "YES" button if this review was helpful to you).
