Matt Zoller-Seitz's review in Variety did a great job of crystallizing my thoughts on SIX BY SONDHEIM; it was a masterful case of suiting a documentary's form to its subject. The way that they pieced together dozens of interviews (new, old, and hello young Mr. Sondheim!) was a great analogy to the way his works refract and reflect on life and each other and himself and ourselves.
I loved most of the new performances, "I'm Still Here" especially. I wasn't sure where it was going when it started, but by the end of the number I was convinced it stole the show. When you view it not as a concert performance by Jarvis Cocker (those of you who don't know Pulp should hie thee hence to listen to "Common People" immediately) but as a short film by Todd Haynes featuring Cocker and the song, it works magnificently. That's a song that works brilliantly on its own terms, and fittingly that short film told the story of it brilliantly on its own terms, especially with the amazing reaction shots of all those listening women.
The MERRILY short film(s) were less exceptional, but for the excellent producer's cameo. Moreover, i was just impressed at how thoroughly insightful and condensed the doc was; a true feeling of a lifetime encapsulated in just shy of 90 minutes is an astonishing feat. Is it a definitive be-all end-all compendium on all things Sondheim? No. But it's the best overall package on his life and work I've ever seen yet, and that's valuable enough.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
