Producing a documentary on a deceased subject can be a tricky thing. Unless you’re a filmmaker covering some huge cultural icon featured in a wealth of undiscovered archival footage, it can be tough to construct a profile on someone who you can’t actually meet, interview, and film. So for TV producer-turned-documentary filmmaker Gil Reyes, Elliott Smith, no matter how interesting he and his music may have been, seems like a tough subject to cover. In his new documentary “Searching For Elliott Smith,” Reyes attempts to outline Smith’s life entirely through interviews with friends and colleagues but never quite reaches a point of interest or insight.
From the beginning of the film it is clear that Reyes was working on a small budget, presenting a lo-fi video production value that is perhaps akin to Smith’s earlier self-produced records. Instead of providing an aesthetic unity, however, Reyes’ homemade look will quite possibly turn off any newcomers to Smith who are unwilling to deal with an unpolished product. It’s clear that any production value is eschewed in favor of content, through interviews the director hopes will provide insights for Smith’s fans. Additionally, though not a fault of the film, “Searching” lacks any sort of ‘outside,’ context on Smith from critics or journalists and consequently may leave some less knowledgeable viewers in the dark.
But even for a casual fan such as this writer, Reyes never seems to construct a compelling story through his interviews. The documentary begins with snippets of interviews from Gus Van Sant and Smith’s girlfriend at the time of his suicide, Jennifer Chiba, and then moves on to chronicle Elliott’s life through friends and collaborators (but never family – Reyes tried to interview Smith’s immediate family to no avail). After old friends and schoolteachers reminisce on the young Steve Smith (he adopted the name Elliott in college), the majority of the documentary becomes chronologically framed around Smith’s album releases until his death.
Though recording anecdotes from producer and friend Larry Crane or stories from old roommate Sean Croghan may please trivia nuts, the interview segments rarely go beyond a Wikipedia-level description of Smith’s career, or endless praise of his musicality. Sprinkled throughout the documentary is archival footage of interviews and performances with Smith himself, perhaps mostly culled from YouTube (we identified a few clips we’d seen on the net beforehand). Reyes also employs unnecessary graphical additions, at one point even labeling Smith onscreen as “Musical Genius” alongside Matt Damon’s “Math Genius” when comparing Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting” to Smith’s own life.
The film does reach some points of emotional resonance toward the end of Smith’s story. As the man succumbed further to depression and drug addiction, Reyes’ interview subjects do provide compelling details on how Smith’s life collapsed and the effects of his troubles on his friends. While nothing truly shocking or out of the ordinary is discussed, the ingenuity of the interviewees’ thoughts is undeniable.
Perhaps most interesting to the conspiracy theorists and fans alike is the last segment on the film focusing on Smith’s death. Jennifer Chiba, Smith’s ex-girlfriend who has been accused by some of actually having murdered Smith, is interviewed extensively and we do get to hear her side of the story in full. Reyes is clearly on her side (as confirmed in a post-screening Q&A we attended at IFFBoston) in believing that Smith truly did kill himself, presenting the idea that he was murdered but never treating the theory with any credibility.
Hardcore Elliott Smith fans will want to seek out ‘Searching’ for some occasionally interesting interview bits with those who were close to Smith. But beyond that, Reyes’ documentary is too unpolished and esoteric for new listeners and mostly too straightforward for fans. It may be cliché to claim that Smith’s music speaks for itself in this case, but unfortunately “Searching for Elliott Smith” does not do much to prove otherwise. [C-]