Space Brothers

I've never been a fan of concert movies. I even found Stop Making Sense boring. I love the Talking Heads and I know it's one of the "best concert films ever," but there's something about the disconnect of watching a crowd having the time of their lives while in a hushed theater or on a couch that just leaves me cold. It's like a big "you shoulda been there! It was awwwesomme." Comedy concert movies can pass muster if you're in a crowded theater, but it's hard.

There are of course exceptions. Woodstock and Gimme Shelter are great, but in those
the performance is part of a larger, more interesting story. I guess those films are more about the crowd than the stars (though there are amazing performances in both those movies).

This brings me Rainbow Bridge. I had heard of it, but wasn't that interested until my friend Mattias told me I had to see it (Mattias is a Swede but knows more about American hippie culture than anyone I know). I expected it to be like any number of grainy late '60's/early 70's messes that the studios funded after Easy Rider hoping to exploit (and sleep with) the longhairs: Murky and boring. Well, it's certainly cloudy in its philosophies but it is anything but boring...If you have any interest at all in subcultures/Utopianism/naked people. Mattias figures the reason this one seems real lies in the fact that it features real hippies. Non-actors. True! This is the freakin' most hippiest movie I've ever seen! Astrological charts are read! The evils of floridated water are exposed! The Space Brothers are already here! And there's surfing! And a volcano! And Jimi Freakin' Hendrix making no sense whatsoever but still blowing minds with his toothy Star Spangled Banner (And if you don't like Jimi--Sean--he doesn't show up for an hour and a half)! These people are so ridiculous and cool at the same time...I mean they can rock headbands! And if the existence of headbands isn't proof of the Space Brother's arrival then, well, tell me, what is? What is?