08/05/2002 Entry:
"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Sam Jones (2002)"

It is impossible for me to have any kind of critical or emotional distance from this film, Sam Jones' documentary on the making of Wilco's modern pop classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I am a Chicagoan, a musician, and a drooling Wilco fan. This film contains places I have seen shows, places I have played shows, places I haves recorded, and people I know. To think that I can view this with a strictly critical or aesthetic eye is pretty ridiculous. Also, for a bunch of personal reasons, the film happened to catch me a point when its subject hit home particularly hard. With all that in mind, I will say that this is a wonderful work, and if any film this year connects with me as deeply I will be pretty amazed.

I have always said that being in a rock band is like being married to a bunch of other guys, and I can't think of another film that shows this as well as this one. As I watched the songwriting and mixing process unfold, with the tension between between Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy mounting, I was reminded at the same time of all the bands and all the relationships I've been in over time. The whole passive/agressive wrangling was maybe a little too real at times.

Jones' beautiful b&w cinematography is perfect for his subjects as well. Not just the band, but the city. The main reason I consider Manhattan to be Woody Allen's greatest film is that its almost like a love letter to New York, encompassing everything he loves about that city. I always wished someone would make a film like that about Chicago, and in some ways Jones has. Many times throughout the film, the band is set against the backdrop of the city in gorgeous grainy black and white, putting Wilco in the context of the city which is their home. This also ties in with the Chicago photos in the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot CD booklet, which were also taken by Jones. The direction of the live footage is done in simple one or two camera setups, nothing showy, perfect for letting the viewer focus on the band. The only slightly showy section is a practice space rehearsal of SummerTeeth's "I'm Always In Love", which had a distracting upside down flying camera more. Even that didn't bother me much, frankly I was more bothered in this sequence by footage of the drummer which was obviously spliced in from another section of film because the drum hits didn't match.

The musical sections are exhilirating. It was so fascinating seeing these songs I know so initimately being formed and molded. I actually would have preferred seeing more of this formative process, although I know it would cause the movie to be far less interesting to most people. Maybe we can get some DVD extras? The straight rock version of Kamera was interesting but weird, I vastly prefer the bouncier version on YHF.

There's this amazing scene later in the film where Jeff Tweedy is sitting in a car with his son. The child is playing the drumbeat of a Wilco song he likes, and Jeff is trying to guess which one it is. Finally, Jeff gives up and asks for a hint and the child says, "it's a song about a drummer." Immediately Jeff knows the song is "Heavy Metal Drummer", and as a live version starts up in the background I was overwhelmed with this scene. This song about a man who misses his past, being played over this scene with his son, who will almost certainly feel the same way about the scene being shown. It was a lovely moment, with the kind of emotional resonance you almost never see in documentary filmmaking.

My only quibble with the film is that a lot of the foreshadowing in the opening scenes was a little too on the nose. All the raving about how wonderful their label is and how well the band is getting along got to be a little much, especially when I think the story is already pretty well known at this point. A minor quibble though because so far, this is my favorite film of the year. It seems not right to say that somehow, since my reasons for loving it are largely personal and have more to do with me than the film itself. However great films conect with their audiences in different ways, and I Am Trying To Break Your Heart went straight to my core.