by CosmicTwin3

2009, Demetri Martin, Directed by Ang Lee

If there was ever a music festival that could change the world, it must have been this one.

It’s based on the true story of how the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival organizers finally found a location and how the chaos of staging it impacted the tiny community of White Lake and its citizens. Demetri Martin plays the main character, a young, Jewish, closeted gay man in the 1960’s who desperately wants to leave but feels obligated to help his parents run their dilapidated motel – and then inadvertently helps to make the Woodstock Music Festival become a reality. It apparently got panned by most critics, but I think they were expecting it to be about the music of the “Woodstock experience.” It isn’t. It’s a charming character study about finding your own way in the world and being true to yourself among all the bizarreness that life can throw at you. It’s funny, touching, sweet – and has that Ang Lee slow pace that allows you to become acquainted with the characters, understand them, sympathize with them, and genuinely like them.

It probably isn’t as factual as a documentary would be, but it comes across as an accurate snapshot of the chaos that we have come to know as Woodstock. There is a fair amount of background nudity appropriate to the time and place. I enjoyed it!

Cosmic Twins rating: Double Serving