Theory of Obscurity: A Film about The Residents (2015)

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Theory of Obscurity: A Film about The Residents (2015) – D. Hardy

The main reaction I had to this documentary about The Residents is a wish that the band had made the film themselves.  But, of course, they may have, because director Don Hardy appears to have had access to a lot of presumably unseen footage from the early years of the 40-year-old band and members of the Cryptic Corporation (that oversee the business dealings of the band) were actively involved in editing and in front of the camera.  Of course, we still don’t know who the Residents actually are – but some of the old guys being interviewed sure seem to know a lot about their history.  My regret is not really with the content shown (which is often truly weird) but instead with the rather formulaic approach taken here – this is really just another one of those music docos where you’ve got talking heads (including with fans/accomplices) interspersed with short clips of the band playing.  There are some great clips but they never show you enough.  Why can’t the makers of these types of documentaries understand that fans would really want to see an entire song?  Especially in the case of the Residents where the visual and multimedia aspects of their show are so astonishing!  There are a couple of songs from the Commercial Album played on the 2013 fortieth anniversary tour that do run their full (short) length but that tour seems stripped down in comparison to earlier tours.  Of course, if the band’s output really is 60 albums (plus all sorts of other ephemera), then no single 90-minute film is going to be able to do justice to any one aspect of their career.  But we do learn a lot about those eyeballs.  Check their records, folks!