As someone who WAS there, this film is merely a compilation of old video, brief talking heads, and the pure chance of a reunion concert. Something DID happen in Boston at this time, but the director missed it by a mile. Instead he built a film around the footage he had, instead of doing the real work of a documentary. The focus on Lenny Clarke exemplifies this laziness. There was the most old footage of Lenny, so Lenny gets a lot of play here, that should have gone to others with far more talent and impact. The women get short-changed, as do the Emersonians. Before there were comedy clubs, there was improv, and except for Denis and Steven Wright, none of these drunken hacks could have created anything but the testament to chemical courage this film documents. The director missed the chance to illuminate the perfect storm that was Boston in those years. Instead he wallows in nostalgia instead of linking how those years rewrote comedy AND punk music, just as Greenwich Village did in the 1960's. Perhaps someday a filmmaker will correctly connect the dots, and link Boston '75 to '85 with the earth shaking cultural changes that we not only witnessed, but managed to live through!
Review of When Stand Up Stood Out
