This documentary is based on an extremely interesting group of guys, The Funk Brothers who are responsible for a large amount of Motown number 1 hits, but never got the credit. And now this film unfortunately has immortalized these guys on celluloid in an incompetent documentary. The story is all about how these guys were left in the shadows, more attention was given to the lead singers instead of them. In this film there are a number of songs performed where these guys get to reunite and play once again. But during these songs, the camera spends 80% of the time focused on the singer. Here the documentary works against everything it was preaching. And during these songs whenever we do get a glimpse of the Funk Brothers, we aren't able to see them play, the camera is swooping too fast, and is too impatient for this. Usually we'll get a glimpse of a hand playing the guitar and then we'll see a close-up of a smiling face, and then back to the singer. And that's another thing, the singers in this film. These guys are so important and yet the best talent they can get is Bootsy Collins, and Joan Osbourne?? Joan Osbourne who is responsible for "What if God was one of us?" which includes classic lines like "nobody calling on the phone, except for the Pope maybe in Rome" is in too many scenes of this film, and why?? Is she related to the director? Was Aretha Franklin busy that day? In the film there are at least 8 songs played in full, not so that we can get a chance to see these guys play, no, since the scenes are focused on the singers anyway, but there are so many songs because the movie has absolutely nothing to say at all. During some of the horribly unoriginal anecdotes, we get to see "dramatizations" of dull stories which seem to echo the cinematic brilliance of an E True Hollywood Story rather than a credible documentary. And through these anecdotes we never really learn about the tribulations these guys were under, we never find out anything about them really, except little cute stories. Suddenly one of the guys will say, "Yeah, that's when he died of drugs," but the film has not set up that this individual had been having any problem with drugs. These guys never become clear characters and it is never made clear how they feel about being forgotten, what it was like then, or anything, not from episodic little anecdotal segments placed between songs. And there are two white guys in the Funk Brothers, but there is no dramatization showing either of their pasts. For the other African American guys, we get to see how a boy would strum a guitar string in an ant hole and make the ants dance, and we get to see how another guy made a guitar on the side of his house. But the white guys just get stepped over, they don't fit into the simplistic minds of the filmmakers. And even the scenes which propel the men to talk about their anecdotes are ridiculous. In one scene we get to see one of the men on his back attempting to play a bass, he then says "Man, nobody can play a bass on the floor like this," this then spurs one of his buddies to say "No, that's not true, Jemmerson could do it. Why I remember one time..." Not only does this scene have horrible acting embarrassing these men, but it also has such a contrived premise to bring on pseudo nostalgia that it recalls sitcoms like The Golden Girls when they have one of their "remember the past" episodes. The story dealing with these guys is very interesting, and they deserve to be honored and remembered, but not like this.
Review of Standing in the Shadows of Motown
