Strange Powers

TedFlicks Rating:

$8.00 ticket on a scale of $0 to $13.50.

Like the bands “They Might Be Giants” or “R.E.M.” the music of “Stephin Merritt [no relation to the Merritt Parkway] and The Magnetic Fields” is an acquired taste — not that there is anything wrong with that.  “Strange Powers” was 11 years and 300 hours of film in the making.  Heck, helmersGail O’Hara and Kerthy Fix could have helped Orson Welles wreck Republic Pictures shooting “It’s All True” inBrazil.  Thank Heaven editor Sarah Devorkin and co-editor Naomi Goodman were able to cut it down to 82 minutes.  Press materials compare composer-singer Stephin Merritt to Cole Porter.  That’s just loopy.  About the only thing they have in common is that they compose and perform music.

Despite 11 years of filming, pic uses archival footage and stills to set the stage.  It helps.  It also helps that Merritt’s mother is alive to be interviewed.  She lends pic much of its charm.  No one can be accused of falling into the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy in thinking that Merritt’s hippie upbringing had much to do with his musical talent.  Maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t.  Maybe he just has talent.

Merritt, who made his career in New York and recently moved to Los Angeles, where he has found work scoring films, continues to perform with The Magnetic Fields.  He continues to work, sometimes in person and sometimes by mail, with longtime manager, friend, and accompanist Claudia Gonson.  Pic’s 11 years of shooting cover The Magnetic Fields’ emergence from underground band to popular success.  And The Magnetic Fields continue to tour and release records successfully.

Filmmakers use a semi-verite style. There are a few off camera questions, but mostly pic consists of performance or rehearsal footage, composing footage, and interaction between Merritt and Gonson — as well as comments from the band members and some key figures in Merritt’s life. The latter include music critic Tim Page (now a professor at USC), Time Out New York founding editor Cyndi Stivers, for whom Merritt had a day job as entertainment editor, and fellow composer Peter Gabriel.

Although it gets off to a slow start (auds who don’t already know “The Magnetic Fields” will wonder what the heck is going on for about the first two reels) filmmakers soon explain it all, with the help of a few title cards.  The Stephin Merritt who emerges is not the world’s most amiable guy, but at least he comes across as non-malevolent and amusing, if not interesting — no small achievement for filmmakers working with middle aged, paunchy, balding, mildly cynical subject.

Tech credits, given the genre, are pretty sharp.  Sound recording excels. Shooting is to the point, although with 300 hours of film cut down to 82 minutes this may be mislaid praise. Editing is to the point, and directors find their way before auds fall asleep. Credit must be given for making one of the world’s less engaging fellows interesting.  “Strange Powers” is unrated, but it contains nothing objectionable.  “Strange Powers” is unlikely to have them lined up at the multiplex, but those fond of off-beat music may be delighted by it.

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