I love the Kinks, but I hated the new Kinks movie, Do it Again. That’s because it isn’t really about the Kinks, but about Boston Globe writer Geoff Edgers and his “quest” to reunite the band. A little background here would be helpful, which the movie barely provides: Brothers and founding Kinks Ray and Dave Davies have always had a contentious relationship—even coming to blows onstage at times—which made their three-plus decade career stormy for almost its entire duration. They haven’t played together since 1996, and the brothers are ostensibly estranged from one another. The primary conflict comes from Ray’s creative control over the band, which often left younger brother Dave without an outlet for his own material. What’s more, Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory don’t get along very well either.

This is touched upon in Do it Again, but the rest of the Kinks’ (deep, fascinating, and as yet largely untold in film form) history is nowhere in this movie, which primarily consists of Edgers talking to the camera and embarrassing himself in interviews with people like Sting, Zooey Deschanel, and Robyn Hitchcock—who gives a priceless look of resignation when Edgers insists on plunking his banjo along to Hitchcock’s rendition of “Waterloo Sunset” on camera. Hitchcock must be a very nice, patient fellow indeed. Paul Weller, of the Jam, is also interviewed and similarly pressured to play with Edgers on camera, but he stubbornly refuses. Good for him.

These interviews—which also include the film’s musical highlight, of Portlander Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck playing “Get Back in the Line”—are okay; everyone talks about the Kinks, a fine topic indeed, and their attempts to describe their importance and relevance to rock ‘n’ roll give the hint of a powerful, interesting movie. But Edgers almost doesn’t seem interested in that. He puts himself in every frame of this movie, and it’s not just that he’s pulling the film’s thrust away from the Kinks, where it should rightly be—it’s that he’s just kind of an obnoxious person. He claims he’s a Kinks fan, but he doesn’t explain why he likes them so much, instead displaying a transparent desire to throw himself in the middle of their history. His goal seems not to be actually getting the Kinks back together, but to get the credit for being the guy who got the Kinks back together. And Edgers doesn’t really do anything to achieve this other than call Ray Davies’ office (he doesn’t get through) and announce to everyone he comes in contact with that he is, yes, in fact, trying to get the Kinks back together.

Spoiler alert: The Kinks don’t get back together. In fact, the movie just kind of peters out at the end, following a climax of sorts when Edgers interviews a very damaged looking Dave Davies. That interview is gripping, but does little other than to confirm that, yes, Dave Davies doesn’t really want to get the Kinks back together. There are so many missed opportunities with Do it Again that it’s depressing. The Kinks’ story is an absolutely fascinating one, and a dynamite documentary could very well be made about them, but I promise you that if it does, it won’t fucking have Geoff Edgers in it.

Do it Again opens today at the Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, 7 & 9 pm, $6 ($4 Tuesday), through Thursday January 6.

Ned Lannamann is a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. He writes about film, music, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, and other things.

17 replies on “Film Review: <i>Do it Again</i>”

  1. This is the first music related video I watch of the year (and I watch a lot of em), and albeit it´s quirkiness, I see a good future in music from 2011 on forward. Yes.

  2. Seems like someone missed the point of the movie. It wasn’t meant to be the ultimate Kinks’ documentary (that would need to be 4 hours long), but rather – as the subtitle says – “one man’s quest to reunite the Kinks.”

    I’m sorry you found Edgers annoying and that it wasn’t what you expected, but let’s not pretend this is meant as the be-all, end-all Kinks documentary.

  4. Don’t be scared away by angry, underpaid critics. I’d trust the Clinton St. folks who sought us out after hearing raves about the film. (My favorite review – because the writing is so wild – is from the Huffington Post: http://huff.to/c2nnAW) My only warning is that “Do It Again” is not a normal rock doc. In other words, you can like it even if you don’t know everything there is to know about the Kinks. And we’re pretty light on insidery, dry, talking heads talk. (Our interviewed musicians play songs!) The movie might actually be, er, fun. And if you see “Do It Again” and e-mail me a pdf of your ticket stub, I’ll send out a free button with Ray, Dave or Pete. GE. Boston, Jan. 2.

  5. Thanks! I´ll try to .pdf that. And thanks for assuring my perception that it is a fun doc, I felt that the hangover had gotten the best of me.

  7. Thanks. I was gonna watch it anyways, I never get biased by critics views or personal opinions on pieces of art. Am gonna photoshop those serial ticket numbers to get 5 free buttons…woooo!! 😀

  8. Geoff Edgers: you should know better than to respond directly to critics. It makes you seem desperate and childish. Reviews are for those of us who don’t want to waste time and money on a film ostensibly about the Kinks.

    I bet those are some nice buttons, though.

  10. Cat & Mouse: Sorry, I don’t take myself *that* seriously and kind of enjoy arguing. That said, my comments came because I felt badly that this lazy review was going to keep folks away from the Clinton Street Theater. As for the movie, just the making of it is an amazing saga, as you can read here: http://bit.ly/gcXt8p

    And I’d like folks to see it in Portland.

    If you truly depend on Ned to guide you on where to spend your time and money, I’d be a tad concerned. Was he folding laundry or sautéing a pan of leeks during the opening sequence? Because he clearly missed that “Do It Again” has a director, Robert Patton-Spruill. Ned’s review was about two things: Lecturing us on what he knew about the Kinks and the joyless pursuit of snarkiness.

    Here’s an offer, (which I assume you’ll label as desperate.) Go see the film. If you don’t like it, e-mail me and I’ll promptly Paypal you your $6. Oh, and a free button.

  11. Hey Blogtown Reviewer – I’m a big Kinks fan, too. And my wife is from Oregon. But I don’t understand you. Have you bought any of the crappy DVD’s supposedly about the Kinks music but instead you listen to buttheads droning on about how they like Waterloo Sunset but hate their RCA albums? I bought about three of them before I caught on. Do It Again is a zillion times better than any of those dregs, and is much more in the spirit of the Kinks. Be careful what you wish for. You could end up with a crappy documentary or a very entertaining movie about a guy who actually did something about his love for the Kinks. Oh, and in case you didn’t hear, Dave Davies had a major stroke in 2004. I was floored at how well he performed Strangers in Do It Again. There might be a future for the Kinks after all.

  15. That’s weird! This weekend I saw a documentary that was supposed to be about Geoff Edgars but it was really just about some old band! There was so much dry, insidery information that I got caught up in listening and burned my leeks. 🙁

  16. “the joyless pursuit of snarkiness”…oh, there can be joy.

    I’m an impartial bystander here, as I never got into the Kinks. A documentary about the history of leeks would have a better chance of getting me to the Clinton.

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