TIFF ’02: Standing in the Shadows of Motown

*½/****
directed by Paul Justman

by Bill Chambers They had more number-one hits than Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined. They were…The Funk Brothers? That reversal of expectations, which occurs in the opening voice-over of Paul Justman's Standing in the Shadows of Motown, is one of the few clever touches that actually works in this documentary about the rotating panel of studio musicians who helped turn Berry Gordy's Detroit record company into a hit factory. In the film's first reel, producer/drummer Steve Jordan offers that it wouldn't matter if "Deputy Dog" had sung the songs on Gordy's label, they were unassailable compositions to begin with, and Justman's approach suggests a determination to prove him right, since he peppers Standing in the Shadows of Motown with new renditions of such old favourites as "Do You Love Me? (Now That I Can Dance)" by the spastic likes of Bootsy Collins–in substitution of any substantial vintage performance footage at that. Needless to say, one does not expect to hear current guitar-wielding R&B-gospel sensation Ben Harper butcher The Temptations (after delivering the most banal explanation of soul music conceivable, one hastens to add) in a movie that purports to tell the untold story of Motown. (Granted, it does, but at what price? Even the topic of Vietnam–a war The Funk Brothers practically scored–steps aside for a Chaka Khan number.) In addition to the youth-pandering cameos, a handful of the stories told by the Brothers Funk are re-enacted in sitcom-quality vignettes; either Justman took the adage "show don't tell" to literal heart or he doesn't realize how sufficiently telegenic his title subjects (among them Eddie Willis and Joe Hunter) are when they're reminiscing. From the rave reviews it's received thus far, it appears there are suckers out there for the picture's brand of shrink-wrapped nostalgia. I'm not one of them. PROGRAM: SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS