I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART
Sam Jones's film, which gets its title from the first track on the latest album
by the alterna-country underground stars Wilco, started out as a documentary
about a band on the verge of a major-label artistic if not commercial
breakthrough. It ended up chronicling the breakdown of Wilco's relationship
with their label, Reprise/Warner Bros., as they attempted to forge ahead with
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, their most challenging and experimental album,
which finally saw release on Nonesuch earlier this year.
Shot in black and white, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is clearly on
Wilco's side as it follows the band through the difficult process of writing,
recording, and mixing an album that would not only bring to an end their
relationship with Reprise but would also lead to the departure of founding
member Jay Bennett. Yet Jones in no way whitewashes these not-so-young men,
going so far as to take his camera into the bathroom at the studio while Wilco
frontman Jeff Tweedy looses his lunch. We also get to hear the different
arguments regarding both Reprise's treatment of the band and the band's
subsequent treatment of Bennett. All of which makes I Am Trying To Break
Your Heart more than just a fan's bio-pic of a band on the verge of a
nervous breakdown -- it's a behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of the
modern music industry. (92 minutes) At the Avon Friday and Saturday,
December 6 and 7 at midnight.
Issue Date: December 6 - 12, 2002
|