For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I give this a three, okay maybe a four.... for the early parts where Harry SINGS. He did write some nice little songs, nothing great, and he is not a 'great' musician either, but then, neither are any of the musicians who eulogize him. What he really was: a failed father, husband and friend. He could NOT be counted on to follow through on his covenant or his commitments. Of course you could boo me for saying that, but it is the truth. After all, his music was my generation's music. As a musician myself, I loved his little 'real life' ditties, but they were not 'genuine', in that HE was the PROBLEM in most (okay, ALL) of his romantic relationships. He could not be trusted. He was a drunk, a druggie, a liar, a cheater, and he ABANDONED his oldest child. The fact that my own father did the same thing to his two legitimate children (he wasn't married to my mother), maybe it 'scratches at my craw', who knows. But I am almost violently disdainful of people who do not honor their covenant. If you watch his 'documentary' you can feel the pain of that son, you can see it in his face. He wanted his father to love him, and Harry was far too self-centered to do that. Well the music was good, to a certain point. (Not if you are a REAL musician, but most people are not so....) I never did understand the adulation for 'rockers'. Everyone loves music, sure, but the Beatles? What did they ever do, musically, that made any kind of sense (if you were NOT stoned?) Just pop culture, that's all. And now, 40 years later, there's some nostalgic value, but that's all. Nilsson was a coward who had no integrity and who reminds me a lot of Michael Landon, who also abandoned his kids, and broke his covenant. Oh well. Losers both. But at least Landon didn't waste his talent, he was just a cheater/bad father. Nilsson ended up with a teenage irish virgin bride who has obviously not got an intelligent thought in her head. She is in fact, a cow. Luckily for HER, of course, since had she been able to think, she never would have had all those babies with him.

Well I know his songs but had never heard of this singer/songwriter's name. This documentary was a revelation for me and if you give it 2hrs of your time it will be for you too. The number of high profile contributors is evidence itself of the scope of influence of Harry Nilsson. But a man who is hardly known outside of the music industry and his close circle of friends and collaborators. Using archive footage, recordings and recollections from the great and good this extra long portrait is long overdue and rightly deserved. I now know why Harry was often known as America's unknown 'Beatle' and like many other rock stars self destructive, very much in the same vein of Elvis, Cash and to some degree Lennon himself.

Saw this film during the Mod & Rockers fest in August. I was so inspired and touched. Harry had an amazing life and one of the best and distinct voices ever recorded. For those of you who don't know about Harry Nilsson do a little research and you'll see that Harry has probably found his way into your life in one way or another - maybe it was his 70s special "The Point" or "Everybody's Talking" from Midnight Cowboy. For me it started with "people let me tell you bout my best friend" - the theme song from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." Watching this film you can really feel the love and admiration from Harry's true friends and peers. Don't shed a tear for Harry - he had a ball...Brett

Thursday June 15, 9:30pm The EgyptianSaturday June 17, 11:00am The Egyptian"He spent most of his life in pursuit of a good time, and he caught it." - Eric IdleHarry Nilsson left Brooklyn, "…feeling like Holden Caulfield. I was fifteen." Eventually, he ended up working as an usher at the LA Paramount and within a few years fell back asswards into one of the greatest songwriting careers in the history of American music. 'Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talking' About Him?)' chronicles the legendary life of "… the best songwriter of our generation." Writer/Director John Scheinfeld produces a 'who's who' of musical royalty, from Brian Wilson and Al Kooper to Paul Williams, Randy Newman and Ray Cooper, "His voice was a medical instrument. It would heal you." Assorted archives include his 1969 appearance on 'Playboy After Dark' and Nilsson's BBC special. The John Lennon, brandy Alexander, Smothers Brothers at the Troubadour comeback-show heckling debacle is one memorable recounting among so many they seem to virtually squeeze Nilsson's enchanting music out of this comprehensive and bitter-sweet bio-doc."He was a wonderful perpetrator."" … I woke up three days later, getting a massage in Phoenix."