“The Jangling Man: The Martin Newell Story” (Captured Tracks) [Documentary Review]

Music documentaries are increasingly becoming a practice in archeology rather than anthropology. Part of that is the immediacy with which surfacing subcultures and movements are found and regarded (if there’s an oppressed music scene in a developing nation, Vice seems to have already done a three-part series on it). The other side of that is the growing awareness of entire discographies of undiscovered gold that curators’ music appreciators pan relentlessly. Most of the time, this results in little more than rehashing territory already well-trodden; however, on rare occasions, there are entire veins of brilliance that are uncovered. The Jangling Man: The Martin Newell Story, this latest biopic on Martin Newell (and Cleaners from Venus frontman) by filmmaker James Sharp is one such example....

unsplash-logoLilith Redmoon