Shine a Light

With the new film out called Control about the Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis there is a set of Biopics featuring charismatic singers, e.g., Ray Charles Ray, Johnny Cash Walk the Line. Now we have Martin Scorsese presenting the Rolling Stones in Shine a Light.

Scoreses knows his music history, he made a TV series with Wim Wenders about the Blues in 2005 he presented "No Direction Home" a three hour documentary on Bob Dylan as songwriter, rocker, rebel and legend.

It's a Scorsese concert movie but not an especially mind blowing concert appearance. It is a perfectly good concert of The Rolling Stones filmed at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The band performed very well in front of a hand-picked, overtly enthusiastic mature audience. We have to remember Scorsese already directed the Stones in his 1978 rock biopic called The Last Waltz a sweaty yet dramaless rockumentary of the supposedly last concert appearance of the band. Shine a Light simply pays homage to rock's living legends. The band still manage to pack a punch creating a wild sound stage on which Jagger girates, thrusts, jerks and flaps his arms about like a man with a jippy tummy. THe crew of rich old geezers look somewhat gnarly, leathered skin and even greying these days bu they churn out classic rock with huge amounts of energy. Christina Aguilera does a guest spot,as does Jack White of White Stripes and there's the blues legend Buddy Guy. Christina's shockingly fit body conveys just how far we'ved evolved since the early days of the rock dinosauria. Apparently the concert is in aid of climate change but there's no enormous backdrops, nor special effects, in fact nobody notices. The movie is keenly intercut with 45 years of old newsreal material of the young Stones (pebbles!) especially in interviews with stuffy headmaster types, replaced later on with more scene savvy hip musicographers and media moguls.

There's a genuine helping of Stones greatest hits making everybody happy and everyone looks as of there having a really good time. But it is a pointless, directionless experience on screen - let's face it concert movies can be quit boring.

This is not simply a corporate Stones vehicle, it is celebration of the success from a genuinely cheerful bunch of lads who've made it happen and we've all shared and indulged in it for decades. The Rolling Stones will just happily go on playing for a long time yet.