creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine Movie Review

creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine Movie Review
Creem Doesn't Rise to the Top

In March of 1969, two gentlemen named Barry Kramer and Tony Reay started a magazine called creem. The name was a play on Cream, a very popular band at the time. Kramer and Reay billed creem as America's Only Rock ‘n' Roll Magazine, as opposed to Rolling Stone, which they felt wasn't tuned in enough to just the music.

creem was known for covering bands that were outside of the mainstream, especially those local to the Detroit area, where the magazine was based. Among the artists in focus were Alice Cooper, Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger. The MC5, and The Stooges, featuring Iggy Pop. The magazine was also known for being irreverent in their coverage. Their writers often offended the artists they were covering, and the film includes an especially fun run-in with Joan Jett.
There are lots of people in this documentary explaining how their growing up was incredibly influenced by creem magazine. REM's singer Michael Stipe and Chad Smith, the drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers, are onscreen quite a bit gushing over their reading it in their youth.

Most of the doc consists of interviews with the people who worked for the magazine and footage of what went on in their incredibly cramped and dysfunctional headquarters. Some of the looking back is wistful, but quite a bit of it is about how nasty a place it was to work. People got paid very little, if they got paid at all. Fistfights were not an uncommon sight. Typewriters got tossed out of windows.

I had three issues with the film. First, there's almost no music in it, and second, one would think there would be more attention paid here to the actual writing. Granted, it's tough to spend much time on writing in a film, but all of this could have been about any dysfunctional company, once you eliminate music and writing. The third issue is how unsympathetic all of them appear to be. Maybe that's not a fair criticism in a documentary, but it left me not caring about a single soul in the story.

There's plenty of tragedy, especially near the end, and that does addsome depth, but you get the feeling that there must be a better way that this story could have been told. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, because this isn't a bad movie. I just believe it could have been so much more.
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About Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera

Hey, I'm Perera! I will try to give you technology reviews(mobile,gadgets,smart watch & other technology things), Automobiles, News and entertainment for built up your knowledge.
creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine Movie Review creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine Movie Review Reviewed by Wanni Arachchige Udara Madusanka Perera on November 08, 2020 Rating: 5

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