The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been one of the most celebrated outlets of alternative culture for the past six years. The festival, which takes place annually in Indio, Calif., showcases today's cutting-edge bands alongside those who have paved the way in the past, making it something of a scene-defining event.
Coachella\ the movie is an attempt to capture the unique atmosphere of the weekend, but unlike a great concert film, this movie is merely a series of performances interspersed with unenlightening interludes. While the performances are split between riveting and dreadful, the film fails to capture the grandiose quality for which Coachella the festival is so renowned.
""Coachella"" is Drew Thomas' first film as director, and unfortunately, it is a rather unsuccessful debut. The main problem is the stale interpretation of the event itself. Coachella is undoubtedly an inspirational weekend, thanks to the combination of the world's most mind-blowing sonic and visual artists and the gathering of thousands of like-minded appreciators. This film, however, displays a boring, pedestrian event.
The main reason for this misrepresentation is the pace of the film. The viewer is presented with act after act, occasionally divided with interludes of varying interest. A few of these short clips consist of prominent musicians or lame fans speaking into the camera, while others attempt to relay the quirkiness of some of Coachella's strange and often hilarious non-musical attractions.
The common thread among the interview clips was the artists' emphasis on the festival's oasis-like atmosphere. However, keeping with the tradition of the pretentious rock star, these commentaries mostly consist of ramblings about how the fest is such a great escape from the turmoil of politics and corporate America, and never really bring the viewer into the experience of attending the event. Nor did the scenes involving fans, who mostly struggled to put up their tents and avoid running into ex-boyfriends.
The film does boast quite an impressive line-up of artists. However, instead of focusing on a flow of performances that would truly show the movie audience what Coachella is like, the film attempts to bombard the viewer with the most wide, varying array of bands as possible, and in a quick, uninviting fashion.
The photography often made the performances sterile and detached. Iggy and The Stooges, for instance, were included with a rendition of their classic ""I Wanna Be Your Dog,"" but the legendary noisemakers seemed far removed from an audience that probably loved every second of it—although you wouldn't know from watching the film. Other acts, such as The Mars Volta, suffered from a combination of hollow recreation and their own almost embarrassing on-stage floundering.
It is not fair to say the film completely misses the mark, however. Luckily for Thomas, some of the acts featured are so brilliant it would be almost impossible not to capture them favorably. Performances from Belle & Sebastian, Oasis, The Arcade Fire, Björk, Fischerspooner and Radiohead seized all the attention left over from the dismal rest of the movie. While Oasis' Gallagher brothers may seem like the antithesis of Coachella's utopian philosophy, Liam's monumental crooning soared over the masses of the festival, finally offering a true Coachella moment. Fischerspooner's bizarre dance tent performance was the film's most beautiful party.
The film's one true moment of ecstatic reflection was during Belle & Sebastian's sublime performance of ""The Boy with the Arab Strap."" For just five minutes, over the sounds of Foo Fighters raging from the other stage and rabid fans on the verge of tears, the film captured a half dozen boys and girls from Scotland and the feeling of being a part of something perfect. Beyond these few performances, however, you would be better suited to take the trip to Indio.
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