The Stone Roses: Made of Stone Review - Entertaining If Broad Musical Tribute
rating: 3
Advertisement
British auteur Shane Meadows was invited by The Stone Roses themselves to capture the lead-up to their summer return tour last year, and the director, clearly a huge fan, is evidently starstruck from the first minute he meets them. This is a double-edged sword of sorts in this reverent yet somewhat hagiographic doc, which captures the fans in all of their passionate obsessiveness, the band in some of their blunt honesty, yet not really a whole lot else. There's no doubting that the band's return after a 15-year separation period was big news for the British music industry, and Meadows' film does a palpable job of capturing the excitement of a legion of fans who assumed they'd never get to see the quartet on-stage together again. One particularly startling portion of the film, shot almost entirely in verite-style, monochromatic handheld as fans desperately dash to pick up free tickets to a warm-up show held by the band prior to their three jam-packed Heaton Park gigs, feels like pure Meadows, taking a potent snapshot of a very pure brand of musical appreciation. It won't be too surprising that the rabid fanaticism sees Meadows interviewing a few obnoxious obsessives - particularly one fan turned away from the warm-up gig who bemoans some people who got in that "know nothing about music" - and for the most part these segments will essentially be preaching to the converted. And that's precisely it; if you like the Roses, you'll glean a few interesting tidbits from the band's trials and tribulations - some of the archive footage featuring the band giving devastatingly awkward, frank interviews is hilarious - and if you're a hardcore fan, you're likely to enjoy simply spending 100 minutes with the band members and listening to their music, even if you'll ultimately not learn a whole lot new.