‘All I Can Say’: Movie Review – Variety

For a brief time in the early nineties, Shannon Hoon seemed almost everywhere. As a frontman for Blind Mellon, he quickly shined with almost all the standard rock and roll fantasy milestones in the series – a Rolling Stone cover, a hit single, a Platinum album, the opening of Stadium Giggs for the Rolling Stones, a few years of MTV News coverage. Later, at the age of 26, he may die from a drug overdose. He has packed a good deal of color and stimulation into his moments in the spotlight, but as he may recall, it shouldn’t be said conclusively that few will consider the char of that moment in feature-length recollection after a moment.

However, “All I Can Tell”, published by Oscilloscope, has a remarkable resource that turns a documentary about a 90s musician into an unusually direct immersion in a rock star’s life: Hun recorded himself with a video camera apparently 24/7, And many tapes have survived. Despite being killed for 25 years, Hoon has been given film screenwriter and director credit (along with directors Danny Clinch, Tarin Gould and Colin Hennessy), and this is understandable, because virtually everything you wanted to see from the standard rock biopic is right here, all The man himself was captured: early pre-fame jigsaws, wild post-festival dates, “Rain Not” studio sessions, the band signing their first contract on the roof of the Capitol Records building, Hun was waging a war on substance abuse, Hun’s ultimate fame was his bandmate and Cracks up with girlfriends … Other filmmakers don’t even have to worry about voice-over narration, as Hun portrayed himself during a television interview with reporters.

The result is a doc that doesn’t really shed much light on Hoon’s trends as an artist, nor does it argue that Blind Mellon’s catalog deserves revision (although this critic has always thought that their superstitious record, “Soup,” is a credit to him. Was much better than). But it does present an astonishing peak of success overnight because it survives minute by minute, as well as a reminder that Millennial YouTubers first general colleague recorded every moment of their waking moment on a video camera.

The filmmakers simultaneously gave a strong-willed account of Yemen’s work that must have been an obsession with the footage – one might question some of the inclusion, such as Han Hoon took the time to listen to himself, but then again unexpected nudity was an undeniable part of Shannon Hoon. Experience – and it certainly helps what Hun does for consistently involved organizations. His dislike for the smoky forgery of Rock Stardom is equally evident, but he seems more willing to play than Kurt Cobain and Eddie Weathers, as long as he’s willing to play as long as it’s good. Until then his role in the whole char. One scene in particular shows a strange mix of his self-awareness and counting collegiates, as he asks a label X for $ 90,000 in advance during a laugh fight behind a lemo: “Look, the thing is I got this whole picture I told everyone. I realized, but it’s really expensive and I’ve spent money. “

Huan was a talented musician, but as the film makes it fairly clear, his gift proved to be equally important for being in the right place at the right time. Shortly after leaving his native Indiana in LA, Hun was able to earn a major recording credit when Axel Rose – who returned to Indiana as a teenager when she knew Hani’s sister – invited her to record backing vocals for Guns N ‘Roses’ megaselling. Use the album “Your Illusions”. (Hunn’s camera captures Rose in the studio, and she doesn’t think less of being a supporting player in this suburban kids’ video project.) With the rise of the Grillz top record label, resources in the vicinity of Willie-Neely are thrown out. In the next Nirvana search, Blind Melon signed a lucrative deal despite having barely enough songs to fill a suitable demo tape. And yet, their first album, “No Rain” in stores – and immersed in stores up to the sun’s sensitive cracks in the rocky milieu in the dark, helped it to an enviable place on the pop charts.

Blind Melon had a hard time maintaining that momentum: a follow-up album sold quite poorly, and a growing perception within the band could possibly realize that their time was probably about to pass. Almost imagining that there is a lighter version of the Blind Melon story, Hun happily followed the method of expression like some other epochs and went through other epochs like Zelig, but his addictions made it impossible. The singer speaks openly about the extensive legacy of alcoholism in his own family, and it is true that the video session began with the statement, “Yesterday I calmed down for eleven months.” It’s hard to take a full picture of his fight even if a contemporary interview is missing, although there are plenty of moments where that fight is painfully obvious, especially when it seems like he’s recording himself just because there’s no one else to talk to. .

At one point, Hunn is asked how he managed to keep his life from being lost in a whirlwind of stardom, and he replies that this is why he’s always on the lookout for a video camera: capturing the entire expedition so he can try to figure it out later. Can, when things finally calm down. He never got that chance, but the full credit of the creators of “I Can Say It All” for giving the rest of us a chance.