Shut Up and Play the Hits

The music is excellent, which is a given, and I actually found the Klosterman interview fascinating. The issue is that the transitions between them are so jagged and abrupt that any momentum built in the concert is instantly shattered. I honestly would have preferred individual films for each aspect of this one.

A concert film interspersed with excerpts from an interview with James Murphy and footage of the band members dealing with the fact that it's all over. The songs from the concert are great and really reflect what looked to be an amazing atmosphere - 'All My Friends' especially looks berserk. Some of the other clips feel a tad forced but a good film nonetheless.

Viewed December 29, 2017.

Now this is how you do a concert film! It does help that the band it focuses on is so utterly fantastic. All I wanted to do when I finished it was to experience it all over again.

Klosterman is a bit obnoxious but everything else is fantastic.

Like the band James Murphy himself, this is an artful, knowing, well presented piece, which hangs mostly off incredible live concert footage interluded by at best heart warming and at worst dull conversations.

A pretty good live show -- you know, LCD was like the Talking Heads of the last decade -- and a very sad goodbye, that reminds us of the great Scorsese's Last Waltz.

I was expecting a solid concert film, with songs featured in their entirety, with minimal interruptions, with great sound quality. I got the opposite. While the music is great, the transitioning between concert and random James Murphy interviews is weird, choppy, and ruins the flow. As much as I wanted to get immersed in this film, the presentation made it difficult. I honestly just came for the music. The title is aptly titled.

What James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem ultimately signify is the idea that while culture is great it's not enough to live on, and for a New York disco-punk celebrity that's existentialism. So no, I don't get the fans' tears, but damn if this isn't the best and most intelligently compiled concert footage I've seen. There's even an emotional current.

This one's really tough to place. On the one hand, you have the live stuff, which is LCD at their best and fully captures their spirit. The enthusiasm and joy felt like Stop Making Sense, with the melancholy of knowing it had to end. The interview with Klosterman/Murphy's first day of retirement was kind of purposeless, though. The "Losing My Edge" convo was cool, but the only revealing part was when Murphy breaks down for a moment at the end. Great when it's music, meh when it's not music.