VividSimon Simply Perfect

Micitype Pretty Good

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

haverslick If you aren't absolutely amazed by Townes' songwriting, finger picking, and singing, all you have to do is pick up a guitar to realize how difficult it is to do what he's doing. He's actually doing three or four things at once: Plucking a bass line with his thumb, a melody with his remaining fingers, and to top it all off, he sings absolutely hauntingly over this intricate accompaniment.When Kristofferson called Townes a "songwriter's songwriter," this is made even truer by the fact that most of his biggest fans are musicians, because of his dedication and the perfection he achieves in his songs. It is truly songwriting rocket science. After I discovered Townes, I hardly ever strummed my guitar anymore, but rather try to keep it mostly fingerstyle.Townes' greatness stemmed from what is the lifeblood of most all great musicians: persistence and dedication (and drugs), at least to his art, if not to the business side of things. Like he said; "You've got to lock yourself in your apartment, take the phone off the hook, and listen to Lightnin' Hopkins for two weeks."

Chris Knipp The straightforward title signals a straightforward piece of work: Be There to Love Me is a documentary about singer-songwriter Townes van Zandt. He's the kind of guy who looks real cool at first, but when you learn about how he lived and what he went through and put other people through, he doesn't seem so cool.Be that as it may, Van Zandt wrote wonderful songs, poetic and sad, blues and country, and Kris Kristofferson called him "a songwriter's songwriter." His life was a strange mixture from the start. He was depressed and sniffed glue as a young teenager: the glue wrecked his teeth, aside from what it did to his brain. He was also an athlete, wrestling, baseball, football, and he was a handsome lean man who never got wide or lost his hair. His depression caused him to throw himself off a roof and his mother wanted to do something, so she had him sent to a hospital around Memphis where he got insulin shock treatments. This is something his mother regretted till her dying day. It took away all Townes's childhood memories and robbed him of a chunk of his personality. When he talks, you feel that something's missing. There's a distance, as if he's watching himself, as if he's not quite there. And he isn't.Van Zandt remained gloomy and wrote about death in his songs, He drank and did drugs, but also went on the road – an act of self destruction but also an act of self denial, paring down to be creative – to write songs and sing them. Eventually he became quite well known, traveled with a little crew, and famous singers did covers of his songs, including Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. He died of heart failure at 52. He had three wives and I think one daughter and two sons.This documentary uses a lot of old footage, even of Townes as a young child. His family was pretty well off – which he is said to have regretted, because his songs are of the poor, lonely, and hopeless. This documentary achieves a kind of truth even though there is little that is distinctive about it but the songs. As a good documentary should, it serves its subject humbly.

dhelling I just returned from watching this documentary at the Seattle film festival, and it was wonderful. It should be required viewing for fans of Townes, and it's highly recommended for anyone interested in the phenomenon of an artist giving over his life completely to his art. The director does a great job of presenting the balance between the often tragic events and circumstances of his life and Townes' wonderful sense of humor. There are some bits, musical and otherwise, that Townes fans will probably already have seen, but quite a bit of new footage as well. The director was given access to a wealth of material to put together into this glimpse of the complicated life of Townes, and the interviews done specifically for this film were extremely well done. Some of my favorite bits: Previously unpublished outtakes to the wonderful film Heartworn Highways, showing a much younger Townes. Fascinating sound clips from a box of taped phone conversations, taken by a journalist over a six year time period. Great filmed interviews of Townes's children, including a very spooky clip of Katie Bell, his young daughter, recounting a dream she had about her father that ended in a gravestone being made. And very interview segments with his friends and fellow musicians, notably Guy Clarke. The film goes into general release in the states in December, and a DVD will follow a couple of months after that.

Pithybrid I was lucky enough to view this film at the Toronto Film Festival. As a longtime, and pretty rabid Townes Van Zandt fan, I was very impressed with the film. Director Margaret Brown did a fantastic job. Her film showed the tragedy, humor and beauty that made up Townes. I had a chance to talk to her briefly after the screening, and you could tell that this was really a labor of love. The interviews in this seem like a who's who of singer/songwriter music, featuring Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Guy Clark and many more. Hopefully it will find some sort of distribution on DVD. It is the type of film that deserves to be seen. Anyone who considers themselves a music fan should take any opportunity they have to see this film.