Taking Woodstock

Things that SEEM TO ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAPPEN IN MOVIES INVOLVING WOODSTOCK OR ELSE: all hippie girls swaying around with their eyes half closed, the word "beautiful" used to describe absolutely anything, cops getting softened by nice hippies, skipping.

And, of course, Taking Woodstock includes all of these, sometimes to an annoying extent, but there are certainly some lovely aspects to it. Emile Hirsch stands out most-- he plays a broken-down fellow just back from 'Nam. He rises above the script's limitations ("kfksjdfsjk MAN, ashkdfakd MAN, you know MAN, adhdkja") and gives the audience a glimpse of a real, hurting human as opposed to an anti-war plot device. Imelda Staunton is also wonderful as Demetri Martin's mother. She plays a fiercely paranoid Russian Jew, and a lesser actress would've let the character become nothing more than a cheap stereotype. Staunton, however, does not judge her character and lets the audience make their own decisions about her.

Some might go into the movie hoping for a raucous celebration of sex, drugs, and Woodstock's brand of rock'n'roll. The music is heard from afar (the main character never actually attends) and the sex and drugs are certainly there but not without a sense of humor. The marketing, unfortunately, did rev audiences up for a film revolving around the music itself. It's simply not the case: the story is Elliot Tiber's, and the conflicts are between he and his parents and his surrounding small town, not the hippies and the mainstream. Go in knowing this, and it's definitely enjoyable enough.