Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams -- Film Review

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams

Directed by Dave Stewart and Stevie Nicks

 

This is a self-indulgent infomercial for Stevie Nicks recent CD, In Your Dreams.  If I had known what it was going to be, I wouldn't have gone.  Ninety percent of it is Stevie Nicks.  Most of the other ten percent is people telling how much they love Stevie Nicks, thanking her for everything she has done, and rhapsodizing about how great she is.  She is a great song writer and a great singer.  That still works.  The music in this is good.  There should have been more music and less talk.  You do learn a lot about her character.  However, I didn't like a lot of what I saw.  I think she is a very needy woman in the depths of her heart with an insatiable need for attention and adulation.  She has to be the center of attention at all times and completely dominates everyone around her.  She is very self absorbed and preoccupied with herself.  I found her oppressive after a while.  This kind of extreme neediness taxes me beyond my limits.  I don't think I could stand being around her for very long.  But I would go see her in a concert.  Her voice still has that sultry, smoky, mesmerizing power that it always did, and her songs are still thoughtful and poignant.  The people who filled the theater where I saw this film applauded enthusiastically.  They seemed to be exactly the kind of adoring fans she needs.  Parts of the film mimic those video pieces for MTV, where an imaginative, theatrical video depicts the song being featured.  But the film also casts some light on her sources of inspiration and the creative process in writing a song and putting a recording together.  For example, Cheaper than Free started from a remark of Reese Witherspoon offering to let her use a condo she owns.  Dave Stewart is her guitarist and lead partner in the songwriting.  Mick Fleetwood appears and plays drums on a number of the songs.  Lindsay Buckingham also participates on a few of the numbers -- but says little or nothing.  The recording took place in her Southern California home.  It presents each of the songs on In Your Dreams, informatively and sympathetically.  I would rather have seen a documentary about her life and career, preferably not directed by her.  If you are a dedicated fan of Stevie Nicks, you'll probably enjoy this, but I would suggest instead just skipping this film and buying the CD.