a-Me-with-a-You

I'm a bit biased. I've been a fan of Jason ever since he tore my heart in two with his rendition of his song "Elephant" on a Wtf Pod. I had never heard such a raw and gutting portrayal of cancer in popular music and all that hurt and passion were in the vocals and the unflinching words. This doc was made by Sam Jones, who's also credited for the great Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. And like that doc, the focus is half on honest and raw personal looks inwards from the artists and the strain wrestling with their muses puts on their relationships. And half about being in the studio where something is born out of thin air.

I love ATCQ and we do get very exciting looks at the birth of hip hop as a creative force of nature. And the iconoclasts, in their attitude, how they dressed, the topics they addressed in their lyrics. We also have the painful moments of the more toxic by the day band dynamics that lead to the breakup until they get back together to release a brilliant swan song album in 2016.

I don't think the rift between the two band members is completely made clear in the documentary except it's about one of them feeling disrespected and egos and I think there was more there to unearth by a more skilled film maker. But Rapaport made this film with love.

This was surprisingly melancholy and heartbreaking. I had expected some fun skater music and vintage footage and there was certainly that, thankfully, but here we get a look at someone skating hours every day because he doesn't know how to be in a family and you get several hearstopping accidents where his skating obsession almost kills him with his fellow skaters and bystanders pleading him to stop.

I've liked Sam Jones music documentaries so far too: the Wilco and Jason Isbell documentaries are as intimate as you want a look at a creative person to be. Sam Jones seems to have a way of getting the documentary subject to trust him and let him in behind the shield.