Rufus Wainwright, the man, the messiah, the DVD.
After his well-documented rehab visit, and last year’s expansive Want CDs, the Rufus Wainwright people put forth a collection of videos, home movies and interviews called All I Want. As the title implies, this works as a detailed companion to the Wants, catering much to Rufus’s latter albums. As underrated as those albums might be, their treatment is a little heavy handed here.
A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright, the main documentary, comes off a little mish-mashed with most of the scenes cut from already included videos, live concerts and interviews. This segment also proves a little lengthy, especially when dealing with the aforementioned Wants. Present also is a great mini-documentary called ‘Rufus Wainwright’ from 1998. This homemade-looking feature gives a very required, if brief, look into Poses years, along with a glimpse of Rufus as a thespian. The live footage, mostly made up of a Central Park concert and a homecoming love-in, is almost too charming with the standard theatrics and on stage emotion. And can there ever be enough scenes of Rufus Wainwright walking around Montreal in that cute striped scarf?
Although a tad thrown together, All I Want showcases the confident vulnerability, and the hilarity therein, of what will surely become a Canadian icon. Just like Wainwright himself, the DVD is closer to a must-see than not. We got ourselves a signed copy. Watch Ruf live with Ben Folds on August 9, or check his gorgeous sister tonight opening for Loretta Lynn.
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