ALL OF THE INTERESTING THINGS that happened to Pearl Jam happened at the beginning. Rising out of the ashes of Mother Love Bone, the Seattle group found a simpatico frontman in the form of surfer dude Eddie Vedder, then rose to meteoric success during the grunge era and soon became characterized by their dour opposition to any trappings of fame. This early trajectory is examined at the beginning of Cameron Crowe’s career-spanning documentary, Pearl Jam Twenty, which celebrates the past two decades of the band history. Its most interesting passages concern the band’s genesis, especially the story of former Mother Love Bone frontman Andy Wood, whose heroin-related death cleared the way for Pearl Jam’s formation.
The rest of the documentary ultimately feels self-serving, as the group hasn’t really done much interesting in the past 15 years other than stay together. With Twenty‘s handheld archival video footage and a snapshot-style narrative structure, there’s little for anyone other than diehard fans to sink their teeth into. I think Crowe—who, judging by his narration, is taking himself way to seriously here—intended for this to be a warts-and-all look, but he worships the band way too much for this to be anything other than a love letter.
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Good, although short, summary. As a person who was at every show during the Mookie and early PJ days, and was fortunate enough to rub shoulders with the band on several occasions, the film was somewhat of a disappointment – Particularly the last two-thirds, which seemed to focus entirely on how big the band became. Where is the extended footage of the Moore show? Or Mural Amphitheater, Satyricon, Melody Ballroom, etc…. The Moore in particular was perhaps their best show ever, even being featured in RS as one of the best shows of the 90’s, (period). In terms of wealth, they seem bigger than ever, but the bands general impact early-on should have been a much larger part of the film. But whatever, most of the audience that drove their initial rise wasn’t much into anything after 10. At least that seems to be a common thread in conversations I have had about the band over the past 20 years.