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Taking Woodstock Movie Review

Taking Woodstock is a 2009 dramedy film directed by Ang Lee and starring Demetri Martin in the main role. It’s a very weak Lee movie.

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“You should see what I’m packing up here“

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Elliot’s parents own a motel in Catskills, New York. To overcome the family’s financial crisis, Elliot offers the organizers of the Woodstock music and art festival boarding and lodging in the motel. I do not know much about this Woodstock music festival and I find hippies insufferable, which is why this movie did not appeal to me.

However, the film is simply a mess even if you do not take personal taste into account. Ang Lee is usually a master at the many genres that he has taken on to direct, but comedy is not his forte. Well, the movie is a drama and a comedy, a dramedy per say, but still the humor that was present here was quite pedestrian.

I also did not care for Demetri Martin in the main role of Elliot Tiber. For such an important character, his performance felt mediocre and uninteresting. Other characters are much less developed and only Liev Schreiber and Jonathan Groff stand out. The latter is very amusing as the definition of a 60s hippie while seeing the former cross-dressing was unexpected and hilarious.

Still, Taking Woodstock was even problematic in these LGBT elements. There is no way in hell that anybody in the late 60s would be accepting toward this minority, even in the more enlightened circles. Thus, the movie felt very false, which was surprising as the director had previously tackled the gay issue in a much more realistic manner.

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The film has some interesting speeches and the lack of music appealed to me personally. The breeziness and the whole 60s effect were commendably achieved technically speaking, but other than that, I was bored and I found it overlong and pointless. It is one of Lee’s weakest efforts to be honest.