Neal Vitale Reviews: Shine A Light

3.5 stars out of 5

 

Martin Scorsese (The Departed, The Aviator) takes a break from more serious cinematic endeavors to revisit his inner groupie (as with his The Last Waltz and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan) with the fawning but fun Shine A Light. This film is a companion piece of sorts to last year’s 4-DVD set, Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bang, which documented much of the band’s marathon world tour. In this case, the subject is a set of late 2006 gigs at New York’s cozy and venerable Beacon Theatre that are not part of the DVD package, though the territory feels deeply familiar. Musically, there’s little new here, as the band remains firmly in the Ron Wood-era groove of crunching guitars that homogenizes their sound. There are a few one-off cameos with the likes of Jack White, Buddy Guy, and, inexplicably, Christina Aguilera, and a couple of interesting oldies are plucked from the Stones’ catalog (notably "Connection" from perhaps their finest album, 1967’s Between The Buttons). But Shine A Light is all about intimacy, as the film audience gets a better view of the performance than anyone actually could at the shows, and energy, as the aged Stones continue to deliver at an amazingly high level. (The proximity has its downside, of course, as the ravages of age and fast living are brutally evident on the Shar-pei-like visages and scrawny arms of Messrs. Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood.) Scorsese adds some nice pop culture and archival touches, along with a modestly clever closing sequence. The result is diverting and enjoyable, if not terribly memorable.

--Neal Vitale