Joshua Reviews Amir Bar-Lev’s Re:Generation [SXSW 2012]

There are few places in the film world where music and cinema blend as beautifully as in Austin, Texas during the SXSW Film Festival.

Running side by side with the music festival, there is even a special segment of the film festival, the 24 Beats sidebar, which looks at films pertaining to the music side of art. Be it a documentary looking at a specific bad (Bad Brains has a documentary making the rounds this year), or in the case of Amir Bar-Lev’s latest film, Re:Generation, a film looking into the true creation of the art in the broadest sense of the phrase, the festival takes the music world, and cinematically runs with it.

Re:Generation follows a handful of beloved DJs (Pretty Lights, The Crystal Method, Mark Ronson, Skrillex and DJ Premier) each of whom is tasked with taking their talents to a new genre of music (Country, R&B, Jazz, Rock and Classical) and attempt to make something wholly their own with it.   And while the music itself may not be everyone’s cup of tea, this is definitely a film that will get the masses on their feet.

Structurally, the film is a standard rock documentary.   Taking glimpses into each of these artsists and their creative process, the film skips from party to party, giving similar respect to hip hop juggernaut DJ Premier as dubstep ‘it’ kid and former screamo star Skrillex, showing us how each respective artist not only comes to find the perfect source material, but how they craft their art respectively.   Premier, for example, is your standard hip hop backpacker, taking a collection of records and going track by track to find the best and most visceral cuts to sample.   Then there is The Crystal Method, who take a tour of Detroit, drawing inspiration from anything and everything they see or encounter.   Within these early moments the film does truly thrive, with the sense of creation sadly losing steam as the film moves forward.

Visually, the film is absolutely killer.   Bar-Lev is one of the most interesting and artistically intriguing documentary filmmakers around, taking his stylistic aesthetic found in something like My Kid Could Paint That, and blending it ever so viscerally with the upbeat stylings of these iconic turntable kings.   Paired beautifully with some great cinematography, the film itself plays as a glossy counterpart to the very rough and raw creative entities that are bread from each of these pairings.   Clocking in at just around 90 minutes, the film doesn’t run its course either, honestly, doing quite the opposite.   Feeling a tad too brief and glossing over a few of the most interesting aspects of the narrative, the film could have stood to be just a bit longer, or maybe even a series of shorter films, focusing entirely on each respective artist pairing.   Ronson and his Jazz group are the most entertaining, as it seems like the perfect fit, while Pretty Lights and his country jam prove to be the most artistically effective.   Skrillex and The Doors has the star power people will be attracted to, and Crystal Method’s ode to Detroit and R&B plays as the poignant message builder.   But as the film’s bookend, Premier is the closest thing to a lead the film has, and his story is definitely a moving one.

Overall, Re:Generation is simply one of the most stimulating music documentaries in some time.   The film is a viscerally effecting look into the creative process, and while the music will leave many viewers jarred (again, dubstep is the Devil’s music to many people), the film is simply an enjoyable look into music and the experience of making it.   While it may feel a bit too broad, there are great moments here, and spearheaded by Bar-Lev, these moments make this film one of the young year’s most enjoyable documentaries.