Greendale

This is amateur filmmaking at it’s best, even if it was made by a multimillionaire world-famous rock star. Neil Young takes a super-8 and a pseudonym and chronicles a few weeks in the lives of the Green family and the residents of Greendale, a fictional Northern California town. There’s no sync-sound, just the music from Young’s latest album, occasionally mouthed by the actors. There are no special effects that a 14-year-old couldn’t have done in 1982, and there are no professional actors. What there is, is a lesson in how beautiful cinematography can be when no money is spent on explosions or breast enhancement technology. All the cheesy ’70s cinema nature-photography effects are here, and they go perfectly with the tremendously naïve story of ordinary people making a difference by speaking out. It’ll make you think that the world actually has a chance, which is sad, because it doesn’t, but what the hell.