As a seasoned movie buff with a penchant for delving into the lives of eclectic personalities, I find myself utterly captivated by “The World According to Allee Willis”. This documentary is like a kaleidoscope of colors, sounds, and emotions, much like the life of this extraordinary woman herself.
The world of showbusiness often brings together unlikely partnerships. It’s challenging to imagine how one individual could associate with talents as varied as Pet Shop Boys, Bob Dylan, Fishbone, John Tesh, Diana Ross, Dusty Springfield, Toto, James Brown, TLC, Lulu, Stephen Stills, Tanya Tucker, Bette Midler, Gladys Knight, Scott Baio, and Richard Simmons. However, this list merely scrapes the surface of a collaborative landscape for the subject of “The World According to Allee Willis,” a documentary about the late songwriter who is believed to have sold over sixty million records.
Willis was not only renowned for numerous achievements, but also had an obsessive tendency to archive her richly lived life extensively. As a result, Alexis Manya Spraic’s documentary appears like a vibrant mosaic crafted from virtually endless resources. Starting this weekend, Magnolia Pictures will be releasing this engaging homage to a hugely successful and eccentric artist in select U.S. cinemas.
Growing up in the Detroit area where Motown music reigned, Willis left an indelible mark on pop culture by co-creating “September” for Earth, Wind & Fire and later the iconic “I’ll Be There For You” theme for Friends. Throughout her career, she was involved in many more hit songs and formed lasting artistic collaborations with songwriters like Cyndi Lauper and The Pointer Sisters.
As a passionate movie buff, I’d rephrase it like this:
The entertaining environment she immersed herself in was intentionally created to radiate joy, a pursuit she never tired of. Growing up as an “extraordinarily tomboyish” girl, she was frequently encouraged to appear and behave more traditionally feminine. At the tender age of 15, her world was shattered by her mother’s passing. Her father, who soon after remarried and gained step-daughters, often criticized her unconventional nature. It’s no surprise that she moved to the West Coast shortly following her college graduation in 1972.
The documentary “The World According” initially causes some bewilderment by implying that Willis’ career truly commenced in 1978, specifically with “September.” However, it later discloses she had already released her debut and final solo album four years prior and her songs were being sung by artists such as Bonnie Raitt and Patti LaBelle. Yet, the astonishingly high volume of Willis’ work in this field alone, where she sometimes wrote three to four songs a day, necessitates that the documentary provides a cursory overview of her extensive catalog rather than a comprehensive review.
Eventually, Willis grew tired of the business where she was often pigeonholed as a lyricist, which stifled her love for melody and ambition to produce. Instead, she started exploring visual art, including painting, mixed media, furniture design, and art direction for music videos. This led her to meet Prudence Fenton, who created creative animated and live-action segments for MTV breaks, “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” and other innovative platforms. The two would be together for almost 30 years until Willis’ tragic heart attack in 2019. However, they remained a relatively hidden couple due to the subject’s persistent refusal to label herself as gay. In one of many clips compiled from her extensive self-documentation, she notes, “It’s always a challenge to believe in yourself.” Willis was recording herself since 1978.
Initially, she seems full of enthusiasm, but as time goes by, her hidden insecurities that fueled her private nature become more apparent. Despite achieving great success, Willis felt songwriting wasn’t sufficiently creative for her. Alongside other ventures, she ventured into the internet early and created an interactive “fictional community” site called Willisville with Mark Cuban as CEO; however, it remained only a prototype and didn’t fully materialize. In the end, her return to songwriting was more rewarding, such as her success with “The Color Purple” on Broadway in 2005, followed by an even more triumphant revival a decade later.
To put it simply, I’ve always admired Bruce Willis as a symbol of that relentless creative force who never feels satisfied with just one accomplishment. His constant hunger drives not only the excellence but also the sheer volume of his work. Yet, there were moments when he might have felt confined by Hollywood, a place where he undeniably belonged given his exceptional talent and impeccable taste. During the 80s, when disco, New Wave, R&B, among others, were blending to create the vibrant world of Top 40 pop, few could have been more fitting for this eclectic scene.
The documentary delves deeply into the unique sensory charms of her home, filled with knickknacks, quirky artwork, and oddities like bowling balls embedded in the lawn – a sort of sanctuary tailored to Devo, Church of the Subgenius, and “Earth Girls Are Easy.” This place showcases an ironic-Americana aesthetic that flourished during the Reagan era, although Willis’ abilities in various art forms surpassed these limitations.
The variety of archival errata here (ranging from childhood home movies to televised award shows) heightens that sense of pleasing clutter, which Spraic and two co-editors keep under control… barely. One gets the sense “World” might easily have run twice as long without taxing viewer patience, making room for a boatload of anecdotes from even more celebrities than the ones that get brief screentime here. Among those who appear to have been the closest to the subject are Lauper, actress Lesley Ann Warren, and Pee-Wee himself, the late Paul Reubens. Devo’s own Mark Mothersbaugh provides the original background scoring, while playful design and animation elements are contributed by Good Radar’s Grant Nellesen.
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2024-11-15 20:20