A few months ago, I think, I posted about how excited I was to see this movie.
That excitement was totally justified.
Most of the action centers around a family who run a failing resort in the Catskills. Imelda Stauton is brilliant as the stereotypical Jewish mother, occasionally breaking into rants about Nazis. I also really liked Demetri Martin's performance as the frustrated, slightly neurotic son. He wants to go to California to be a painter/designer, but has instead been roped into helping with the motel and being president of the chamber of commerce in his small, conservative hometown.
Luckily! His two obnoxious positions put him in just the right place to have the power to authorize the hippie music festival that has been forced out of another town in the area. I really liked how this movie showed the opposition to what these kids were doing. There were all these assumptions that Woodstock would dissolve into violence, things would be stolen, property damaged. Besides from the effects of having a couple of thousand people in one place, not a lot of that really happened. But the people in the town wanted them out. It's that opposition that I think we're lacking these days. The tension between generations that gave people something to rebel against. Perhaps that would produce more action out of what seems a largely apathetic youth. I'm sure we're not, I just don't see it.
Ang Lee, as usual, is an expert at creating a full world. All the details were taken care of and the side plots were just as delightful as the main story. Liev Shrieber's character, the drag queen (I think) security guard, was utterly charming. The buildup of Elliot's romance with Dave the Construction Worker (Adam LeFevre) was very nicely presented without being overdone. There were also great cameos by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) and Mamie Gummer, who I like more the more I see of her.
In conclusion - the sixties don't look too bad when Ang Lee directs it.
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