Reviews

Patti Smith: Dream of Life

An intimate, affectionate, non-linear visit

By GERALD PEARY | December 9, 2008

3.0 Stars

This collage of a documentary emanates from an 11-year collaboration between punk poet/rocker Patti Smith and her filmmaker friend Steven Sebring. Although a bit long and occasionally unfocused, Sebring's film is an intimate, affectionate, non-linear visit with Smith, bolting back and forth in time and across the globe.

What's not to like in a movie where Smith goes from roaring through "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances" on stage to playing informal folk guitar in her apartment with one-time flame Sam Shepard to visiting with her cute mom and pop in their New Jersey home?

Whether reminiscing about old roommate Robert Mapplethorpe or talking about her crush on William Burroughs or hanging out with her teenage daughter, the CBGB queen-in-residence is charming, ageless, an amazing presence. Smith balks at being called a "rock icon," but that she is.

109 minutes | Kendall Square

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