Variety reviews a new documentary on Patti Smith:

The titular rocker-poet gets a suitable portrait in Steven Sebring’s “Patti Smith: Dream of Life,” which runs radically against the grain of American-made pop music docs. The result of 11 years of filming (much of it in wonderfully grainy black-and-white 16mm), pic is designed as a stream-of-consciousness experience, following Smith as she revives her music career and considers every aspect of her life. Death, too, plays a stark role, and the textured, thoughtful results may prove too cerebral and abstract for auds beyond Smith’s hardcore followers, but long-term, this will be a loss-leader that gains much respect.

This doesn’t sound promising to me.* Smith’s an amazing figure, but she hasn’t released much interesting material since at least “Gone Again,” though the critical corps is loathe to tell you that. I’m sure she’s still interesting to see in concert, but of course that can be said of a lot of nostalgia acts.

* When I hear the words “wonderfully grainy” I reach for my revolver. Jim Jarmusch’s “Year of the Horse” Neil Young concert doc begins with the flashing words “8MM! 8MM! This movie was filmed in 8MM!” (Or words to that effect.) The audience at the premiere I saw cheered them. But then at the end of the movie there were oceans of credits about all the awesome sound equipment Jarmusch and Co. used. Why is it cool to film the thing crummily but not record it that way?