When Your Strange (Tom Dicillo, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Jacqueline Gomez at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The film “When Your Strange”, directed by Tom Dicillo, is a look inside the famous rock band, The Doors.  Tom Dicillo has also directed television shows “Law and Order“, and “Monk”.  This film is a collection of all the never released behind the scene footage of The Doors.  This film really shows it’s audience the real person that Jim Morrison was, and shows the success and sometimes down falls of the famous rock band.
Since this is a documentary, not much acting was going on.  A great part of the film is the Johnny Depp is the narrator.  He does an excellent job telling the behind the scenes story of The Doors.
The film did have a three play structure.  There were not many twists and turns, the audience just gains so much knowledge about The Doors that true fans did not know of.
The mise-en-scene was excellent.  This documentary took chances, and was not afraid to go out of the box.  The deep saturation and obscure angles definitely did the movie justice.
The editing on this film was very quick paced.  I think the quick editing made you feel in tune with the band’s hectic lifestyle.
The music score was all Doors music.  Not only do they have excellent music, but each song portrayed exactly what topic was ever being discussed.
This film was excellent.