All I Can Say | |
---|---|
Directed by | Danny Clinch Taryn Gould Colleen Hennessy Shannon Hoon |
Produced by | Lindha Narvaez |
Starring | Blind Melon Shannon Hoon |
Edited by | Taryn Gould |
Music by | Blind Melon |
Distributed by | Oscilloscope Laboratories |
Release dates |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
All I Can Say is a 2019 documentary film about Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon, consisting largely of footage he shot on his camcorder during the last five years of his life, from 1990 to 1995. The film, directed by Hoon (and directed after Hoon's death by Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould, and Colleen Hennessy), documents Hoon and his band's formation, their rapid rise to stardom, and his tragic death at the age of 28.
The film (whose title comes from the opening lyric of the song "No Rain") is set mostly in chronological order and filmed on Hoon's handheld video recorder, including the earliest footage of Blind Melon's formation in 1990 in Los Angeles, California, Hoon sitting in on Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion recording sessions, his relationship with his family and bandmates, the whirlwind success of the hit song "No Rain", and all the way up to (and including) the day he died on October 21, 1995, while on tour in support of Blind Melon's sophomore album, Soup .
"All I Can Say" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2019, [1] and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 24, 2020, which included an interview between Judd Apatow and the film's surviving directors, among other added features. [2]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 16 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10. [3]
For Variety , Andrew Barker wrote, "At one point, Hoon is asked how he keeps from getting lost in the whirlwind of stardom that has taken over his life, and he replies that this is the very reason he’s always walking around with a video camera: capturing enough of the mayhem so that he can try to make sense of it later on, when things finally calm down. He never got that opportunity, but full credit to the makers of All I Can Say for giving the rest of us a chance." [4]
For Rolling Stone , David Fear gave the film a 4 out of 5 star rating, and wrote, "These are just home movies, you think. Then, this music doc strings them together and makes you feel like they aren’t just home movies at all. It turns them into a firsthand portrait of fame, making someone’s dreams come true and then majorly fucking with their head." [5]
For Alternative Nation, Greg Prato wrote, "Thanks to Clinch, Gould, and Hennessy, we now have a fascinating glimpse into the tragically short life of one of the most captivating rock singers/performers of the era (and beyond) – Shannon Hoon." [6]
For BraveWords , Aaron Small gave it an 8 rating out of 10, and wrote, "Impactful, intriguing, intimate, and honest, All I Can Say is an insider’s less than glamorous look at essentially immediate, and short-lived success." [7]
The film won the "Grand Jury Prize" at Sound Unseen, "Best Documentary Feature" at New Hampshire Film Festival, and "Best Feature Length Documentary" at the Rincon International Film Festival. [8] [9] The film was also selected as one of "The Best Movies of 2020" by Esquire . [10]
The film was awarded as the "Best International Musical Documentary" at the 2020 In-Edit Festival. [11]
Blind Melon is the debut studio album by American rock band Blind Melon, released on September 22, 1992 through Capitol Records. "No Rain" became Blind Melon's breakthrough single.
Blind Melon is an American rock band formed in 1990 in Los Angeles by five musicians: three from Mississippi, one from Pennsylvania and one from Indiana. The band currently consists of guitarists Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn, drummer Glen Graham, vocalist Travis Warren and bassist Nathan Towne. They are best known for their 1993 hit "No Rain", and enjoyed critical and commercial success in the early 1990s with their neo-psychedelic take on alternative rock.
Richard Shannon Hoon was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer of the band Blind Melon from 1990 until his death in 1995.
Soup is the second studio album by American rock band Blind Melon, released on August 15, 1995. The album was released eight weeks before vocalist Shannon Hoon's fatal drug overdose, making it his final album with the band, though it was not their last release with him, as his posthumously released work was included on the next album Nico. It reached number 28 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart.
Dead Ringers is a 1988 psychological thriller film starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. David Cronenberg directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider. Their script was based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus and on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, a "highly fictionalized" version of the Marcuses' story.
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film Léolo (1992).
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Thomas Rogers Stevens is an American guitarist, best known for being a founding member of the alternative rock band Blind Melon. He has also been a member of the bands Extra Virgin and The Tender Trio, and is an attorney.
Danny Clinch is an American photographer and film director.
Unified Theory, previously Luma, were an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1998. The lineup consisted of Chris Shinn, formerly of Celia Green, former Blind Melon members Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith (bass) as well as Dave Krusen (drums) formerly of Pearl Jam.
Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace is a 2007 American animated documentary written and directed by Brett Morgen that tells the story of the Chicago Eight. The Chicago Eight were charged by the United States federal government with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests in Chicago, Illinois during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
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