by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $19.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Stuart Gray, Mark Arm
Intro:
... a textbook example of a great doco.
Subtitled “The Raw Life of Stuart Gray”, this is fascinating viewing from go to whoa. That’s largely because Gray, better known by his former moniker of Stu Spasm, is such an interesting and versatile character. His musical career alone has encompassed many styles, in dozens of groups from Lubricated Goat to his current outfit, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet. But then there are his remarkable sculptures, many of them portraying the famous – or the infamous.
The film hits the ground running with some riff-laden and repetitive (in a good way) hard rock by the aforementioned quintet, and there follows a rich mix of live footage, videos and anecdotes from the man himself and other interviewees. There are childhood memories … Glimpses of a peripatetic existence in various Australian cities … and, since about 1989, of his life in America and specifically, for decades now, in New York City. Contrary to his neo Dadaist image, he is, incidentally, a very skilful guitar player – and an autodidact with a lot of knowledge about all manner of art and esoterica.
This is a textbook example of a great doco. Crisply edited and ‘un-showy’, it needs every second of its running time to cover the eventful, colourful and hyperactive life of its subject. The multi-talented Stuart Gray is not only a prolific, uncompromising and creative artist – and indeed Outsider Artist, as more than one person refers to him here. He’s also a great and candid raconteur and a very clear thinker, utterly devoid of pretension and often very funny and droll. Consequently, I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago is really entertaining, though it has its occasional sad and alarming moments too. There’s more than a grain of truth in that title, given Gray’s sometimes wild and indulgent history, but as Mark Arm from Mudhoney puts it, “You can drop an anvil on the coyote but the coyote will keep on going”.
Very highly recommended.
