Rush - Time Stand Still - Review
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2010’s Beyond the Lighted Stage was a star-studded love letter to one of the greatest rock bands, Rush. Watch it if you need to be convinced of Rush’s greatness or like seeing them get honest praise.
2016’s Time Stand Still is… something completely different!
Even though it has some funny tour stories, it isn’t a career retrospective. Time Stand Still is actually a documentary focusing on their fans and their last tour. Not latest: last.
You might be expecting this flick to be a complete downer, but it’s surprisingly not. Sure, plenty of Rush fans are seen crying. Of course they are - the band means that much to them. But the tour was (apparently) very successful, so some attention is paid to that bit of good news.
Much of the focus is on Rush’s fans, as featured en masse and in lengthy one-on-one interviews. These aren’t celebrities - they’re just normal people who love Rush. (Okay, except for the one baseball guy whose name slips me.) Their stories add to the positivity of the film and I’m glad to see the spotlight shine on fans in a way that isn’t exploitative.
But still, it’s Rush’s last tour, and that sucks. The film seems to present Neil Peart’s reluctance to tour as the major reason why Rush is not touring any more, rather than the reasons for his reluctance. And this is my one problem with the film. Drumming can be a rigorous activity, and I do not blame Peart one bit for being uncertain that he can continue to pull it off. But I think that the movie glosses over this and make it seem like Peart just doesn’t want to tour.
But that’s a fairly minor thing, and I only take offensive to it because I’m a drummer and relate to Peart’s reservations about performing.1 Time Stand Still is a fantastic tribute to a great band and its fans, and one that’s easy to recommend to other Rush fans.
Recommended
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I did not start drumming because of Rush. Honest. ↩