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I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
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And the Band Played On
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Unrated
2001, Plexifilm
Singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy is the figurehead of the band Wilco and he is also the compassionate face that sums up director Sam Jones' enthralling rockumentary film, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. Jones has made the ultimate story about second chances and talented artists finishing first against the corporate machine. For a low budget, independent documentary like I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, there is no better tale to tell.
Much of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart takes place in the laid-back confines of the Wilco Loft, the homegrown Chicago studio and practice space shared by Tweedy and his bandmates. The film's one moment of levity occurs early when Tweedy paints a funny face on his round tummy and sticks a cigarette in his belly button. It's a time of peace, love and artistry; a happy calm before the inevitable storm.
Matters quickly turn tense when Tweedy and the other band members debate their songs while finishing the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in a $1,000-per-day studio. Their frustrations reach a boiling point when their record label drops them after listening to the album.
With I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Jones embraces the cinema verité style of documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, director of the classic Bob Dylan documentary, Don't Look Back, and the recent Bluegrass film, Down From the Mountain. The Chicago street scenes in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, especially the wide, curving lanes of Lakeshore Drive, look timeless thanks to grainy photography, shot by Jones on black-and-white 16mm film.
Long takes and moving camerawork help push the story forward. Still, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is a modest film, emphasizing Wilco's story over flashy imagery. Like all great rockumentaries, it's the music that brings I Am Trying to Break Your Heart alive. Jones shows the evolution of a song like "Heavy Metal Drummer" through its various incarnations. More importantly, Jones lets many of the songs play through in their entirety. He knows that in a story about Wilco, the music plays an integral part in the story.
Between the songs, Jones unloads a series of insightful, dramatic pauses. Late in the film, Tweedy struggles to describe Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to a group of backstage fans. My favorite scene of everyday drama occurs when the Wilco tour bus stops at some roadside fast food restaurant, but Tweedy has no money to buy lunch for his family. Like the film telling his story, Tweedy's own life is modest and flash free.
Tweedy exits I Am Trying to Break Your Heart as an engaging film actor, thanks to his round, average face, boyish looks and easygoing demeanor. He has a likeable presence that outshines many actors. Truthfully, I'd rather watch him over somebody famous like Ben Affleck any day. Tweedy claims a haunting voice, but I Am Trying to Break Your Heart shows that his presence packs just as much emotion.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart grade: A.
And the rest
Documentary filmmaker Kate Davis captures love, tolerance and a sweet story about family ties in Southern Comfort (Docurama), her 2001 film about 52-year-old Robert Eads, a chain-smoking good ol' boy from rural Georgia who's a transgender. At the beginning of the film, Davis catches up with the rascally Eads after he's fallen madly in love with Lola, a fellow transgender. It soon becomes clear that Eads is sick with cancer, and his time is running out. Davis' matter-of-fact storytelling mirrors Eads' own down-home spirit. By emphasizing the film's human drama instead of its political commentary, Davis tells a romance that's universal and transcendent.
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