Courtesy of St. Louis International Film Festival
Boston Globe writer Geoff Edgers’ first foray into the world of documentary film, Do It Again, isn’t about influential '60s rockers The Kinks, but instead is about Edgers’ quixotic pursuit of the group. Approaching 40 in 2008, Edgers began a quest—described by wife Carlene as “a mid-life crisis”—to reunite the critically acclaimed but popularly underappreciated Kinks, split in 1996 by feuding brothers Ray and Dave Davies.
Described by co-workers as variously “goofy,”“loud,” and “tenacious,” Edgers reverently rehashes the group’s oral history over vintage live shots and Kinks classics like “You Really Got Me” and “Lola.” These teaching moments are the film’s high points. Ray Davies, now 65, was the creative engine of the group, and never allowed the younger Dave the artistic input he desired. The band—also fairly goofy, loud, and tenacious—persisted through various incarnations for decades, but true mainstream success always eluded them.
For the uninitiated, the educational content is there. But too much, Edgers inserts himself into the conversation by veering into overly personal minutiae—tapes of his high school band, or rants about labor disputes at work. Director Robert Patton-Spruill’s lengthy montages document 50-plus rejections from disinterested artist representation. Adding to the awkwardness, Edgers continually poses surprise appeals to each interviewee, asking them to play songs with him on acoustic guitar. Suffice to say, Edgers is neither a musician nor a sound engineer. Those who agree do so reluctantly, and the musical performances are generally stilted, clumsy and under-rehearsed.
The interviews themselves can generally be grouped into two categories: Vaguely relevant A/B-listers fond of Kinks music, and people or bands Edgers knows that you’ve likely never heard of, whose careers in some way parallel the rise and fall of The Kinks.
He does manage to get Yoko Ono on the phone for five minutes (the world’s foremost expert in the field of band togetherness). He also sits down with Sting, REM’s Peter Buck and indie pop commodity Zooey Deschanel, each of whom express a simple affection for the old group. An interview with record mogul Clive Davis, who signed the band in 1976, confirms the kind of one-sided control Ray maintained over the troubled group: “When you’re dealing with self-contained artists, writers like Ray Davies, it’s their genius that you’re signing them for. I dealt with Ray. Ray was the leader to me,” he says.
Do It Again doesn’t off much in the way of catharsis, either. What should be the climactic final interview and live performance from founding brother Dave Davies—doing the regret-tinged “Strangers”—is reduced as Edgers tries, poorly, to play and sing along. And what of Edgers’ attempt to reunite The Kinks? It doesn’t happen—been there, done that, Davies says: “I told [Ray] the idea… That face. The eyes… Look, I’ve got to be somewhere."
Writer/Director Geoff Edgers will be present at the Tivoli screening, which will be followed by a showing of Kinks music clips at the Halo Bar.
