There’s a Story to the Music

Like most of my friends, I had expected walking into the Film Forum and watching a movie about scientific experiments and the like.  After all, what else would come to mind when one thinks of magnetic fields?  But how pleasantly surprised we were when we found out that this a film was about a rather unknown band that Stephin Merritt and his friends John Woo, Sam Davol, and Claudia Gonson had made in 1991.

I arrived into the theatre about ten minutes late, so I was unable to see the beginning of the film.  When I walked in, the first thing I saw on-screen was a group of people performing on stage.  The thing that really caught my attention was the tone of the main character’s voice both singing and talking.  With a resounding steadiness, Stephin Merritt’s voice extends to the audience with more base and bravado than even Josh Groban’s.  The background music, in my opinion, was a bit lackluster and mismatched, with a cello, ukelele, banjo and other various instruments chiming in from time to time.  I liked the diversity, but I feel that the songs themselves needed a bit more cohesion.

The film goes behind the scenes and gives us a glimpse of Stephin Merritt’s personality and all the vulnerabilities of each band member.  The audience is immediately given the presumption that the main character is very introverted and difficult to interview.  Only over time does the audience get to see the musical genius behind the dark and witty person that is Stephin Merritt.  The interview of Stephin while he was outside the Film Forum years before the movie Strange Powers and the Magnetic Fields came out left me laughing as he reminisced about his first encounter with an acupuncturist.  Claiming to have been assaulted by the acupuncturist in his youth, he explains his fears surrounding acupuncture, saying that he might “retaliate” against the next unsuspecting person.

Stephin Merritt’s melancholy demeanor serves as such a great foil to Claudia Gonson, a childhood friend of his.  She serves as the manager of the group–the foundation of the band that keeps everyone sane.  As Stephin describes, “As far as people go, she’s okay.”  I had rather mixed feelings about the supporting character.  Although Claudia shows signs of being the more mature one between herself and Merritt, the scuttle in the car between the two gave a picture of someone who gets agitated a little too easily.  The other two members of the band, John Woo and Sam Davol, are given relatively little screen time, but their relationship to Stephin Merritt is portrayed as that of a business-type relationship.  There is little sentimentality amongst the cellist and the guitarist towards Stephin, but despite that, you can still feel the honesty and ingenuity in their work.

As I had mentioned earlier in the review, The Magnetic Fields is a largely unknown band to the world, but this movie gives us a great introduction to a group of artists who deserve better.  Amongst Stephin Merritt’s chagrin, there is an undeniable likability in such a unique character.  It’s the first time I’ve ever watched a documentary about a band, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Posted: December 7th, 2010
Categories: Jeremy Chan, Strange Powers: Magnetic Fields
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