It's About You

Name: It's About You
Genre: Biography, Music, Documentary
Released: January 4, 2012
Duration: 86 min
Rating: 55

2012

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Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

MPI Media Group | Release Date: January 4, 2012 | Not Rated

Summary: The documentary follows John Mellencamp as he tours America and records his 2011 album No Better Than This.

Director: Ian Markus and Kurt Markus

Genre(s): Biography, Music, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 86 min

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Critic Reviews

Peter Rainer

Jan 7, 2012

Despite never having made a movie before, and utilizing comparatively primitive camera and recording equipment, Kurt and his son Ian crafted a movie unlike any other in the rock-doc genre. Read full review

Movieline Stephanie Zacharek

Jan 6, 2012

The result is a kind of homespun video scrapbook, bumpy seams and glue splotches and all; it's flawed, but at least it feels handmade and human. Read full review

Gary Goldstein

Jan 6, 2012

The result is an unhurried, visually compelling look at a man and his music - as well as of a bygone America filled with shuttered downtowns and the ghosts of such late musicians as Elvis Presley and blues pioneer Robert Johnson. Read full review

Eric Hynes

Jan 3, 2012

The result is an amateurish travelogue that feels like a botched assignment, halfheartedly self-regarding and resentfully remote from the object of our fascination. Read full review

Noel Murray

Jan 4, 2012

It's About You's sound is relatively clean and dynamic, but there's nothing remotely resembling a narrative here. Read full review

Ronnie Scheib

Jan 4, 2012

Luckily, the music trumps the indifferently shot concert footage and lends shape to the evocatively lensed recording sessions in iconic locations. Nothing, unfortunately, mitigates Markus' sincere but trite and awkward narration. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Jan 6, 2012

The title It's About You is something Kurt Markus claims Mellencamp told him when he commissioned the film. With the elder Markus' self-important, egotistical narration rarely shutting up, it was a fairly prophetic remark. Read full review

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User Reviews

osuwkuman

May 8, 2013

First you must realize this a documentary. Second, you will probably be watching it because you enjoy John Mellencamp. And finally, you tend to watch rock n roll artists perform live. Well, this movie will help you realize all three in it's relatively short 86 minutes. So here's whatFirst you must realize this a documentary. Second, you will probably be watching it because you enjoy John Mellencamp. And finally, you tend to watch rock n roll artists perform live. Well, this movie will help you realize all three in it's relatively short 86 minutes. So here's what makes it "better than the average" rock star documentary. John is so down to earth in life and certainly maintains his own character during the film. He challenges Kurt Markus to film the documentary. Markus had never done a feature film. To make it even more of a challenge, but in the name of simplicity, John wants it on 8mm film and tells Kurt that the film is "All about you." So Kurt hires his 21 hear old son Ian to help him and off we go.

The journey takes you on tour with Mellencamp as he performs old hits as well as songs from the album, "No Better Than This (2010)". But what makes this movie simply wonderful is not just the music but Kurt Markus's narration. He admits that he has all this photography and audio equipment, but all he wants to do is write. It's his 62 years and mission to please John that he tells a story that allows his word and John's music to enhance the photography instead of the film attempting to enhance the music. It's sincere, passionate, and you feel his chills as they play in historic venues that represent the origins of rock, blues, and Americana. The moments spent at Sun Records in Memphis alone gave me goosebumps when Mellencamp gets excited about standing on the "X" where Elvis stood and recorded. And hearing John get all grumpy in the scene where he and the gang are recording in the same room as Robert Johnson.

I did two things after watching this movie. I went in and pulled up songs by Robert Johnson and T Bone Burnett just to hear them play. Then the rest of the evening, I just listened to John Mellencamp. In my opinion a good documentary leaves you want to know even more this one earns my 8.… Expand

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TheDRauch

Jun 29, 2012

It's About You, a doc following one of John Mellencamp's tours while he records a new album isn't so much a concert movie (which have been springing up more and more so in recent) as it is a trip across western America. Now I, who had little knowledge of Mellencamp before viewing the film,It's About You, a doc following one of John Mellencamp's tours while he records a new album isn't so much a concert movie (which have been springing up more and more so in recent) as it is a trip across western America. Now I, who had little knowledge of Mellencamp before viewing the film, found the movie's focus to be directed much less on him and more on the grayscale shots of the trip shot through a Super 8 camera, which both makes it distinctive and hurts the documentary. It's About You is mostly not too bad otherwise, save for the narration by Markus. He comes off as humbled by the task before him, but also a bit too self-focused and uninteresting. If he had let the film play out without him, featuring only an opening narration, and focused solely on John, the film would have played out more audience-pleasing. It really shouldn't have been about him.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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