There is a town in north Ontario...

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Neil Young takes us on a music journey to his childhood hometown in Ontario.

Movie Review

Neil Young Journeys

• Directed by Jonathan Demme
• Cinematheque
• PG
• 87 minutes

3 1/2 stars out of five

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Neil (right) and his brother Bob reminisce about the Young family home.

"Well, I hope Neil Young will remember..."

- Lynyrd Skynyrd

This third documentary collaboration between 66-year-old rocker Neil Young and director Jonathan Demme offers up the simplest setup.

Neil Young tours his childhood hometown, an event cross-cut with a solo concert at Toronto's Massey Hall, evidently in support of his last Le Noise album.

And no, fellow Winnipeggers, the childhood hometown is Omemee, Ont. and not Winnipeg.

If the previous Young/Demme movie Heart of Gold featured Young's recollection of obsessively playing the jukebox at Falcon Lake, this movie is comparatively Ontario-centric. The result is that the movie is not so much an examination of Young's formative years as a musician (that would have to involve Winnipeg) so much as it's about his formative years as a man.

Thus, we get Young driving around in a roomy '56 Ford talking about an idyllic childhood raising chickens. With his older brother Bob, he checks out his old schoolyard and hometown haunts, including the grown-over green space that used to accommodate the Young family abode.

If you're looking for it, you can make the connection that Young's current persona as an environmental activist was at least partly driven by a childhood spent in the idyllic pastures of north Ontario.

But Demme doesn't belabour that point. Young has always been at his most articulate on a stage, and this particular concert tour shows him in potent form as a solo act in a venue that is at once as burnished and well-worn as Young himself.

He plays old and new material with equal passion. In fact, his version of Ohio, the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young paean to four college students killed by the National Guard during a protest rally at Kent State, is undiminished in its sheer anger.

The film also demonstrates Young's astounding penchant for innovation, a quality that has kept him a creative force when most of his living contemporaries fill auditoriums with their robotic performances of golden oldies.

Not that Young doesn't go to that well. But even his rendition of old songs feel fresh, such as his performance of After the Goldrush, accompanying himself on an ancient Estey reed organ with churchy grandeur.

The concert's sound mixers get a deserved nod from Demme for the way they help Young employ speaker feedback as its own musical augmentation, one reason Young playing guitar by himself can sound absolutely orchestral.

Young himself remains a compelling presence, with a battered white jacket and a scarred straw hat, he looks like a perpetually scowling beachcomber with his pant legs rolled down.

Neil Young Journeys might not convince you that Young is a class act. But it certainly convinces that Young is in a class by himself.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Neil Young Journeys:

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

-- Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

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

-- Chris Riemenschneider, Minneapolis Star Tribune

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.

-- J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

For true believers, Neil Young Journeys is a visit with a still-vital friend. For the merely curious, it's proof that there's more to the man -- more strangeness, deeper communions with the muse -- than classic rock radio will ever let on.

-- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

With its one-of-a-kind poetic lamentation, Young's voice sounds more peculiarly lovely than ever. A small picture, but good and true.

-- Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

It's an intimate performance portrait, divided among new material from his 2010 album Le Noise and many of his classics.

-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

More casual fans will twist in their chairs uncomfortably, wishing that a roadie would walk up and wipe it off. Neil Young die-hards will cherish the spittle.

-- Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

A feast for Neil Young lovers and initiates alike.

-- Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

What's the point of this particular project? Why -- apart from any marketing concerns -- did either artist feel it was essential to capture this concert on film?

-- Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

The nicest thing I can think of to say about the doc Neil Young Journeys is that at least it isn't in 3-D.

-- Kyle Smith, New York Post

Mr. Young's passionate cracked whine assumes an oracular power.

-- Stephen Holden, New York Times

Young's almost mystical musicianship is what saves it.

-- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

Neil Young Journeys underscores the continuing relevance of Young's artistry over the last 45 years and why he is regarded as one of rock's most influential musicians and songwriters.

-- Claudia Puig, USA Today

Of course, the music is the thing and the sounds here earn Demme's reverence.

-- Jim Farber, New York Daily News

Journeys, shot on the last two nights of Young's 2011 solo world tour, is essential Neil Young.

-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Demme and five other camera operators expertly capture an intense, pared-down 2011 solo show at Toronto's Massey Hall in the absorbing new Neil Young Journeys.

-- Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

Compiled by Shane Minkin

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 24, 2012 D1