20 Feet from Stardom

Released:  March 7^th, 2014

Rated:  PG-13

Distributor:  RADiUS-TWC

Starring:  Darlene Love, Judith Hill, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Táta Vega, Jo Lawry

Directed by:  Morgan Neville

Personal Bias Alert:  knows music industry history, not a fan of polished docs

6 of 10

            Those not center stage are always overlooked by history.  It’s more mythical and in a way easier to imagine a single person pulling off the great feats of times gone by, but the reality is that for every great figure there was a bevy of supporting players that elevated the top dog’s work.  Directors have screenwriters, presidents have advisors, and painters have subjects.  The music industry is no different, which makes 20 Feet from Stardom’s frothy look at background singers seem a bit overblown.

            Even though they’re not crucial pieces of pop culture history, the singers highlighted in 20 Feet from Stardom are certainly entertaining.  They’ve spent years, some of them a lifetime, perfecting the art in massive tours with the likes of Ray Charles, Elton John, and The Rolling Stones.  They’ll readily tell you how much they’ve contributed to popular entertainment, and most of them seem to relish in the spotlight that director Morgan Neville finally shines on them.  They prance, belt out runs, and feel every bit the diva most of them aspire to.  While Neville’s focus is largely on legends like Darlene Love and Lisa Fischer, some younger singers do enter the mix, and even one man.  Each are accompanied by live or recorded performances, and their talent is impossible to deny.  The reasons why such talent didn’t lead to fame is the question the film allegedly explores, but it too often follows its characters down rabbit holes that prove redundant or irrelevant to really examine the phenomenon.

            Its findings, in fact, are so light that Bruce Springsteen sums most of them up within the first two minutes of the film.  Sting adds a bit of explanation from the business side later, and by the time the credits start rolling, it becomes apparent that all of the backups’ stories can be explained with one of these two reasons.  The fact that Neville has these truths come from real stars is almost duplicitous considering the documentary is about the unsung greatness of their backups.  Even in their own film, these singers are getting put in their place by the leads.  Neville allows other treacherous moments to slip in, such as when someone refers to Sting as “cool enough” to momentarily put the spotlight on Fischer, as if highlighting her extraordinary talents was a great gift that Sting bestowed.  It begs the question of how Neville himself views his role in the film.  Does a part of him fancy himself the great documentarian who’s done pieces on the likes of Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and Sidney Poitier mercifully turning the light on these lesser-known cogs?  Is that not a bit exploitative itself?

            Whatever the reasons Neville had for making the film, his too obvious setups give away just how manipulative he’s being.  This is a very polished film, some might argue overly polished.  The interviews are immaculately staged and the returns to old haunts seem rehearsed, giving an attentive viewer the uneasy feeling of watching a slanted, one-sided piece that exists under the thumb of the director, not in the real world.  That’s not overly important giving the story Neville is telling; the lasting legacy of our greatest backup and session singers won’t make or break society, but if you have a distaste for being told what to think, then this documentary isn’t for you.

            In the end, 20 Feet from Stardom proves to be an amusing but trivial look at some very talented people.  That it gives its stars some of the attention they so rightly deserve is nice, but the world is full of people who get screwed over.  Neville never finds out why these maligned people are so special, so deserving of the spotlight, when so many other people in the music industry remain ignored.

Other Notes:

Ø  This film spends a decent amount of time on the session performers who got screwed over in the early ‘60s.  What’s left out is how the performers taking credit for their songs were considered interchangeable and got screwed over just like the session singers.

Ø  Of course Phil Spector makes an appearance, and of course he’s a jerk.

Ø  What’s up with the one lady who appears in all their staged recording sessions but never gets talked about?  Was she left on the cutting room floor?  Is she a backup to the backups?