First off, is this a cruel joke? This “Taking Woodstock” “trailer” (which we have to put in quotes, “trailer”) looks like a Demetri Martin film, not a picture directed by the venerable Ang Lee. Honestly, about halfway into the trailer and we’re thinking, is this “Dazed and Confused” light? Is Ang Lee working on a project very atypical for him?
Or maybe this film is much more of a comedy/ light dramedy than we ever expected because it just seems to get campier and cornier. Liev Schreiber in drag makes us laugh, Emile Hirsch looks like he’s about to laugh mid-sentence deliver. Perhaps that’s the point, but man, this is not what we were expecting at all! It’s got a weird, episodic sit-com tone and a goofy, “That ’70s Show”-like tone. Very odd.
Doesn’t the music in the trailer at the beginning sound like something Mark Mothersbaugh wrote for “The Royal Tenenbaums,” but not quite? The score is actually being composed by Danny Elfman. Strange. “Taking Woodstock” hits theaters on August 14 in limited release.