Taking Woodstock (2009)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 178
Fresh: 86 | Rotten: 92
Featuring numerous 60s-era clichés, but little of the musical magic that highlighted the famous festival, Taking Woodstock is a breezy but underwhelming portrayal.
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 29
Featuring numerous 60s-era clichés, but little of the musical magic that highlighted the famous festival, Taking Woodstock is a breezy but underwhelming portrayal.
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Movie Info
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee tells the story of the Greenwich Village interior designer who inadvertently helped to spark a cultural revolution by offering the organizers of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival boarding at his family's Catskills motel. The year is 1969. Change is brewing in America, and the energy in Greenwich Village is palpable. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) is working as an interior designer when he discovers that a high-profile concert has recently lost its permit
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Cast
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Demetri Martin
Elliot Tiber -
Dan Fogler
Devon -
Imelda Staunton
Sonia Teichberg -
Emile Hirsch
Billy -
Eugene Levy
Max Yasgur -
Jonathan Groff
Michael Lang -
Henry Goodman
Jake Teichberg -
-
Adam Le Fevre
Dave -
Kevin Chamberlain
Jackson Spiers -
Boris McGiver
Doug -
Paul Dano
VW Guy -
Kelli Garner
VW Girl -
Clark Middleton
Frank -
Christina Kirk
Carol -
Sondra James
Margaret -
Kevin Sussman
Stan -
Spadaque Volcimus
Hippie Guy -
Pippa Pearthree
Miriam -
Andy Prosky
Bob -
Gabriel Sunday
Steven -
Jeremy Shamos
Steve Cohen -
Liev Schreiber
Vilma -
Malachy Cleary
Wes Pomeroy -
Katherine Waterston
Penny -
David Wilson Barnes
News Reporter -
Patrick Cupo
Charlie -
Mamie Gummer
Tisha -
Skylar Astin
John Roberts -
Bette Henritze
Annie -
Stephen Kunken
Mel -
Will Janowitz
Chip Monck -
Louisa Krause
Hippie Girl
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Taking Woodstock Trailer & Photos
All Critics (178) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (93) | DVD (8)
This may be a minor movie, but it displays the hallmarks of a major talent.
Top CriticAng Lee's companionable 'Taking Woodstock' is thick with sun and good cheer.
Too much of Taking Woodstock seems barely sketched out.
It's harmless enough as a snapshot of a young man's awakening to the grand possibilities of adult life, but not particularly effective at capturing the spirit, the thrill or even the mud of this culturally monumental event.
This is very light material, and, unusually for a Lee picture, not everybody in the ensemble appears to be acting in the same universe, let alone the same story. On the other hand: It's fun.
Taking Woodstock has the appeal of an inside story told from an especially good angle. But beyond that, the movie is a celebration of the way this event has gone into memory and of the meaning it has acquired.
Does a great job of recreating the time, place and people that came together to make something magical in the middle of the summer of 1969.
A valentine to America.
A ham-handed attempt to indicate the oncoming tragedy of Altamont ends the film with a touch of contrivance, but it's the only sour note in an otherwise flawless film.
Amazing that Ang Lee can make such a listless movie about arguably one of the most high energy times in recent history.
An interesting idea, but it doesn't really have much to capitalize on outside of the authentic period reproduction.
This Borsht Belt turned Bacchanalian screen memoir suffers from persistent peripheral vision of a historic moment, while dulling the senses with an overload of housekeeping details. Not exactly a bad trip, but in no way a time travel contact high.
Effectively employs iconic Woodstock imagery not to regenerate a numbing sense of mass nostalgia but rather as a minimalist backdrop against which to amplify the anguished, intimate ordeal of a frustrated individual who wasn't even there.
Watch carefully as the film tries to ramrod too many themes, invoking split-screen technique, and see if you can identify how often self-indulgence is confused for enlightenment.
Não se revela particularmente interessante ou minimamente revelador no que diz respeito à natureza de Woodstock ou do próprio protagonista.
A minor work from Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee that is enjoyable but ultimately underwhelming.
Achieves the highly improbable by making one of the most exciting events of the 1960s look really boring.
A rare misfire for the usually reliable Lee.
Taking Woodstock is entertaining, funny but also very slight film. Unlike the real Woodstock, it won't change lives or burn in the memory.
his is by no means a terrible film, but from a filmmaker as exceptional as Ang Lee it's a rare disappointment.
Taking Woodstock will leave the unstoned cold and won't have anyone aching for those legendary 'three days of peace and music' that wasn't there in the first place.
Some will revel in it, but (younger) viewers may find Taking Woodstock old hat.
Audience Reviews for Taking Woodstock
Super Reviewer
Taking Woodtock is mostly missed opportunity and as a character based drama it is surprisingly out of of focus to be Lee's film. Director Lee's strong side has always been his talent with characters and actors but here he has too many characters who are nothing but badly written caricatures. Especially Imelda Staunton and Emile Hirsch are so over the top that their characters feels something out from a comic books than a film.
Lee also fails with his presentation of the year 1969 and some of the moments and costumes are like from That 70's Show. It is was also a bad decision to use similiar split screen that worked with in his Hulk. All the split creen mayhem does not work in a film like this and is only pointless and distracting.
With unbalanced screenplay by James Schamus there is not that much to do and while Lee at times succeeds to give us some nice comedic moments and characters, Taking Woodstock is clearly a failure as a film. It is like a bad tribute to the era it is so very hard trying to imitate.
The intentions here might have been good but Taking Woodstock is quite bad as a film and is far from Lee's best work.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Hotel Woodstock (FR)
- Destino: Woodstock (ES)
