Neil Young Journeys documents Neil Young’s return to Ontario for a 2011 concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall. It’s about 85% Neil Young music and about 15% Neil Young’s guided driving tour around his old haunts (“there is a town in north Ontario…all my changes were there”). Young plays four of his songs from 2010 and several more from 1969-79. He is alone on stage with boxes of equipment and a cigar store Indian, and accompanies himself with electric guitar, harmonica, piano and, on Down By the River, a stentorian pipe organ. Ohio is intercut with video of the Kent State massacre and pictures of the victims.
It’s the third Neil Young film by director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Rachel Getting Married). Demme shows the good sense to simply show Neil and then his music unadorned. He does get arty with one camera that zooms on to Young’s mouth and grizzled chin. Sitting in the third row, I felt like I’d need to duck spittle at any moment.
If you don’t love Neil Young, skip this movie. If you do love Neil Young, see the movie in a theater or in a home theater with a good sound system. Turn it up.