One of the scrolling articles that serves as a cinematic backdrop for Radiohead concert footage tells of the year that all entertainment simultaneously dubbed "Year of OK Computer." Explained simply: "...you wake up to find that the world's rock media has sewn its tongue onto the back of your trousers."
Even if you know very little about Radiohead, you know that they were 1997's media anti-darlings. That was the year that OK Computer, Radiohead's third full-length EP, was splashed on the cover of every major and not-so-major magazine, alongside phrases like "Best of the Year" and "Masterpiece." And that was the year they became the poster boys for avant-garde, trippy, alternative-to-alternative rock. They had "made it," and they didn't have the option of turning back.
The group's documentary, Meeting People is Easy, serves not so much as a tale about Radiohead the band, but rather highlights the sudden escalation of fame and positive press that makes it the band we know today. Directed by Grant Gee - who was also behind the camera for the group's "No Surprises" video - the film puts us in the hot seat alongside the reluctant British music heroes.
This one doesn't ask the questions, though; it shows the others doing it - asking question after question in an attempt to probe the minds of these suddenly mainstream guys that seemed to have deep genius lurking beneath their shy surfaces. The answers they give aren't so much important as the effect the process has on the band. Fame is the focus of this film. We see how after a while, a comment like "You are the saviors of rock and roll" from a critic begins to sound empty and meaningless.
If Radiohead fans take their film like they take their music, Meeting People is Easy is sure to please. It's a visually tantalizing and ever-changing work of art, switching color from frame to frame, weaving between black and bright white, a vibrant palette, and odd, mustard-yellow lighting. Quick editing and offbeat camera angles mix in breathtaking photography and haphazard images: A moving train. A huge, crawling bug. Street signs. Front man Thom Yorke's face in a close up - a study in itself.
The songs from OK Computer tell the tale along with the constant dialogue; the film is essentially a 99-minute music video. We don't really clearly hear the band's conversations and interactions, or their answers to the questions, and I don't believe we're intended to. The incredible music that sent the band into stardom is, and should be, the dominant aural force in the film. Conversation and interviews, along with the shouting of fans, the continuous shutter of cameras, and the murmur of the press, all merge into a collective, conglomerate backdrop that serves to convey the message of growing popularity.
The lines that do stand out are amusingly fitting: "It's a head f-ck. It's a complete head f-ck," says Yorke of the attention overload. About the initial release of OK Computer: "We were convinced that the critics would pan it."
Sadly, Meeting People is Easy may be a visually intriguing film, but it is also a boring one. Perhaps, that's partly the point. The guys in Radiohead grew terribly bored themselves with the mundane chatter of journalists asking the same questions over and over again, and we relive these moments. As we travel from Barcelona to Berlin, New York to Tokyo, and back to London, we hear the same inquiries from dozens of mouths. "What is music to you?" "How do you define rock music?" The cities are different, but the publicity bit is very much the same. After we've seen the same scene countless times it's clearly evident that yes, they are doing their hundredth interview... and they're incredibly bored, too.
It's the few moments of raw emotion that stick out and make the movie worth a catch - and are probably some of the same moments that got the band through the year of craziness.
Without a doubt, the film's short, sweet highlight is a rendition of Radiohead's first major hit, "Creep", before an enthralled Philadelphia crowd. We can't see the masses - the camera remains tilted upward, trained on Yorke's upper body in a fuzzy black and white. What we can see, and what tells all, is his bemused, bordering-on-delighted expression that springs as he tilts out the microphone and lets the fans take over the vocals. Their passion surprises even him - it's one of the only times (if not the only time) we see Yorke smiling in the entire film.
The few moments of color like these are just enough to make the documentary engaging. But, Meeting People is for no one else but fans of the band - at the end of the film (which is too long by at least 20 minutes), if you didn't know anything about Radiohead as a band to begin with, you won't have gained much at all.
Meeting People Is Easy, 3 stars, Museum of Fine Arts, part of the "Guitars and Film" series, tonight, 8 p.m. Tickets are $8, $7 for students and members. Call (617) 369-3770 for info.
