'Take Me to the River' is a feature film celebrating the inter-generational and inter-racial musical influence of Memphis in the face of pervasive discrimination and segregation. Music legends from Stax records and Memphis also mentor and pass on their musical knowledge to contemporary artists in this documentary.
The premise for this documentary couldn't be more stilted, and some of the matchups are enough to make you wince. But there are a few striking intergenerational moments.
Three of the guitar marvels shown here - Hubert Sumlin, Teenie Hodges and Skip Pitts - have died since filming. This is a marginal but worthwhile footnote to their legacy.
It feels like a mishmash effort overall, more a home movie than a theatrical release. That's fine. If you approach it on those terms, you can't help but feel the love, too.
"Take Me to the River" includes just enough history of the civil rights era to lend it gravitas. The color-blind recording practices of studios like Stax were an anomaly at the time and are well worth noting.
While those sessions result in full songs, some of the most memorable, iconic tunes in music history, this film never coalesces into something greater than a collection of mildly interesting pieces.
