Saint Joe
I've mentioned before that one of the curses of living in Victoria is that it's a bit of a cultural void. This is especially true in the realm of film. Over the last 10 years, even the university cinema has gone from being cutting edge to mostly showing second-run Hollywood stuff, occasionally peppered with cooler choices. One such cooler thing was a three-night stand of Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. Hell, the movie is already out on DVD, but I was still happy to see it on the medium screen. The doc certainly lives up to the hype being heaped upon it. Julien Temple did a good job of balancing Strummer's regular pals and star power interviews, intercutting intriguing historical footage, interviews, concert material and much more, all showing what an amazing character Strummer was. If more people thought like him, we'd all be better off. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. In the leadoff cut of the new Hold Steady album ("Constructive Summer"), Craig Finn sings "Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer, I think he might have been our only decent teacher." And after seeing the documentary last night, Finn might be right.
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