91% Neil Young Journeys

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (4)

"Journeys" is simply a trip most need not take.

I'd say the movie does a fine job of completing the trilogy, but I wouldn't be surprised if Demme and Young have more in them yet.

Like Young, Demme often takes an iconoclastic route. This is in part a concert film, yes, but not a traditional one.

Forget Crosby, Stills and Nash and maybe even Crazy Horse. Jonathan Demme might be Neil Young's ultimate collaborator.

As a songwriter, Young can still deliver: one of the best tunes here is a lovely, piano-propelled number, "Leia," that he hasn't even released yet.

The wartsy antipode of Katy Perry: Part of Me, with an intimacy and intensity bordering on the overwhelming.

Fans of folk rock legend Neil Young who are willing to accept that the guy is well past his prime will respond to the downbeat tone of Jonathan Demme's concert film.

The director is putting Young in the audience's lap, allowing the viewer to examine all the creases and crevices of his grizzled face as well as capturing the emotion the singer pours into his songs.

These two world-renowned and individualistic artists from the worlds of music and film clearly bask in each other's company. We, the audience, would be fools to respond otherwise.

Long may he run, sure, but 'Neil Young Journeys' has the feeling of a farewell.

"Journeys" is about looking back - not in sorrow or wistfulness, but in affection and, often, impassioned remembrance of times past and how they still resonate in the present.

A mesmerizing and intimate visit with a performer who is identified most closely with rock 'n' roll, but whose artistic curiosity has taken him in myriad directions musically throughout his 40-plus-year career.

Neil Young Journeys does for some of us what a rare film can do - it revives and renews our spirit. Neil Young and Jonathan Demme. Heart and soul. Wisdom and age. Fire and ashes. Lightning and thunder.

For fans, Journeys is like that box set of uneven rarities that they simply must own. For casual friends, it's 90 minutes in good company. For the rest - ho-hum.

An unusually fulsome tribute to the singer-songwriter from the director of The Silence of the Lambs.

On its own terms, "Neil Young Journeys" is an enjoyable concert film of a solo show in Toronto, interspersed with memories of his Canadian boyhood.

The concert camera work is sometimes a little tight for comfort (not really interested in Young's bridge work), though it adds to the intensity.

Movie fans probably don't need to hear him sing "Ohio" again, but "Neil Young Journeys" -- Jonathan Demme's second Young doc, if you're counting -- does have some new wrinkles.

In a sense, this film finishes a cycle that began with the homey and impressive "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" and continued with the raucous "Neil Young Trunk Show" of 2009.

"Look at Mother Nature on the run..."

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neil_young_journeys/

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