Mick on Finding Joe

[michelej1]

This is from the Hollywood Reporter's Film Review on Finding Joe, 9-27-11:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...-review-240824

Twenty "visionaries" talk to the camera about Joseph Campbell's major findings in his life-long study of mythology and the human experience.
If you don’t mind being lectured to for 80 minutes, Patrick Takaya Solomon’s Finding Joe makes an excellent primer on the seminal teachings and discoveries of the late mythologist Joseph Campbell. Only a few old photos of the famed Sarah Lawrence professor appear on screen and the film contains not a single interview with him. Instead Solomon tracks down 20 “visionaries” to express Campbell’s major findings in his study of mythology.

These startlingly radiant, at times even joyous, faces expound about Campbell’s wisdom, often completing each other’s sentences. Much of this is drawn from Campbell’s seminal book, The Hero’s Journey, published in 1949.

The whole thing takes on the aspect of a self-help movie rather than a documentary though. These disciples peach the gospel of Joe and, one suspects, they’ll be preaching more or less to the choir in the film’s limited engagements that start in western states. (Does the filmmaker believe this is a “Left Coast” film?)

Solomon brings his interviewees in from several fields but labels many with vague terms such as “Best Selling Author” or “Philosopher/Entrepreneur.” It might have been helpful for a viewer know what books the person authored or what business he might have launched.

Some come from the show business such as Mike Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, film director Catherine Hardwicke, screenwriter/producer Akiva Goldman and actress-writer Rashida Jones.

Naturally, Deepak Chopra shows up along with professional skakeboarder Tony Hawk, surfing superstar Laird Hamilton and Robert Walter, president of the Joseph Campbell Foundation.