Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)

The documentary is soft and just a two hour puff piece. You get all access to a band like this and you don't go into the real depths about the band and ask hard questions? What about their wives, girlfriends?Why didn't Cameron Crowe interview Dave Abbruzzese for example? I think every fan considers him being a big part of the band's history. Eddie Vedder never had a good reason firing him so he's probably still a little embarrassed about it...that's probably the reason he didn't want to talk about it. That's the thing...if you want to make a TRULY great documentary you have to also include the things which are unpleasant for the band members.

Pearl Jam Twenty (2011) **** (out of 4) Wonderful documentary from Cameron Crowe about the twenty years of Pearl Jam. Crowe talks about how he was living in Seattle when the entire grunge/alternative scene broke and from here on we see how the band came to be. Using interviews, archival footage and current concert footage, Crowe turns this into one of the better documentaries out there. We see the band starting out, rising to the top with the album Ten, taking on Ticketmaster, touring with Neil Young and then continue to try and make sure they stay true to themselves even when some of their fans started to question them. I was around 13 when the Seattle based rock really took off and I remember listening to Pearl Jam for a few years but then my music tastes started to change. I really haven't kept up with the band since then so one should keep that in mind as they read this but I thought the documentary was terrific. It really gave me a terrific idea of what the band is, who they wanted to be and it was great fun seeing their rise to fame and seeing how they almost broke up. I found Crowe's direction to be marvelous because a lot of times with these documentaries you have someone who doesn't know how to put all the footage together to make it entertaining. Concert footage is great. Interviews are great. Even television show clips are great. However, so many documentaries don't know how to put all the footage together but Crowe does a wonderful job and really delivers a film that even non-fans should enjoy. Even though I haven't followed the band in many years this documentary really made me want to rush out and buy their CDs and DVDs. I found the interviews to be extremely good and I liked the fact that Crowe didn't shy away from some of the darker moments in their twenty years. The documentary also covers some other groups from this Seattle era including the relationship between Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The suicide of Kurt Cobain is also covered and we get concert footage from the night of his death. Overall Crowe really has worked a mini miracle in bringing Pearl Jam's story to life. If someone like me enjoyed it so much I'm sure die-hard fans of the group will feel as if they're in Heaven.

PJ 20 is rich, smartly edited, brings incredible footage and tells interesting stories, but it should not receive 10 out of 10 for one big reason: it promises 20 years of history but only delivers 10. Obviously the first 10 were the formative years. However a lot happened during the latter decade which is barely touched by the film.The nuance in a lot of segments is to be loved. But it is sort of tricky that the five of them never appear together in the present time interviews. It tells a lot about how this great band works and should have been further explored.Overall though PJ 20 is a great film, specially for the initiated.

I am an avid Pearl Jam fan and this was such a pleasure to watch. My concern going in was that it would focus too much on Eddie and take a political twist. None of that happened...equal time spent on every band member and no political message, just a bit about what social concerns they have tried to address. Music was great. It was nice to hear and see footage from the early days in Seattle '89. You will get a great sense of what the band is like and their particular sense of humor. If you loved listening to Ten, go see this. Supposedly the DVD is going to have 4 hours of extra footage, so if you missed it last night, you might want to wait.