New York Daily News
November 18, 1998
Demme Shelter: A Singer & Street Fuel Hitchcock
New Storefront Offers A Special On A Cult Favorite
Storefront Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock
Directed by Jonathan Demme
At Film Forum
Running time: 81 mins
Unrated: Contains no objectionable material
***
by Dave Kehr
Combining subersively catchy Pop melodies with caustic, introspective lyrics, British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has been a cult attraction for 20 years, first as a member of the bands The Soft Boys and The Egyptians, now as a solo performer.
Storefront Hitchcock, Jonathan Demme's admirably low-key rockumentary, captures him in performance in an empty storefront on 14th Street. As Hitchcock plays and delivers his ruminative, between-song monologues we see the life of the street continuing behind him, including an occasional curious passerby stopping to peer in.
It's a sterling idea, providing an ever-changing background, as well as a sly comment on Rock's mercantile roots and, perhaps, the ultimate irrelevance of the artist. And for Demme, a greatly talented filmmaker whose style has evolved in recent years into baroque excess (epitomized by another current film of his, Beloved), it's a return to the clarity and rapt humanism of his earlier work.
Among the 15 songs Hitchcock performs are "The Devil's Radio", "Filthy Bird", "Glass Hotel", and the piercing "Yip Song", which Hitchcock describes as being about his father's death.
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