Like, groovy. Or something. Since I was 7 years old during Woodstock, all I know about it is what I've seen, read and heard since I grew up. "Taking Woodstock" was only mildly interesting. It's about how the festival ended up being held at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, NY. Demetri Martin plays Elliot Tiber (Teichberg at the time, before a name change), whose parents owned the El Monaco Motel. Elliot gave his permit for a musical festival to the Woodstock organizers after the town of Wallkill banned the concert. Martin's mainly known for his work on Comedy Central. He's not an experienced actor and it shows. He's sort of blandly earnest. Unfortunately, he's the lead, so he needs to be more than that. The rest of the actors are better, however. One other thing is missing: we see the town before "Hurricane Woodstock" struck, we see the massive crowds of hippies and the traffic jam on the New York State Thruway and the rain and the mud...but the stage itself is only shown from a loooooooooong distance, and none of the performers are seen or heard. I'm sure that using actual or re-created performances would've cost a lot, but wasn't the music sort of the point of the whole thing? My grade: B-minus.
Reminder: my grades for all the movies I've seen in 2009 can be found here.
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