"Taking Woodstock" gets lackluster response at Cannes Film Festival

Producer James Schamus, actor Emile Hirsch, director Ang Lee, actress Imelda Staunton and actor Demetri Martin

Director Ang Lee, already beloved by gay filmgoers for his previous gay-themed films including The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain, debuted his latest film, Taking Woodstock, this weekend at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Based on the autobiography Elliot Teichberg (who published under the pen name Elliot Tiber), Taking Woodstock tells the story of one young gay man coming to terms with his sexuality who also played a pivotal role in bringing the legendary Woodstock concert to life back in 1969.  

Variety and Entertainment Weekly quickly posted their reviews and neither were exactly raves.

From Variety: 

... the picture serves up intermittent pleasures but is too raggedy and laid-back for its own good, its images evaporating nearly as soon as they hit the screen. ... Despite being temporally defined by the run-up to the fest and the weekend itself, the pic has a formless, unstructured feel, as its attention jumps from incident to incident in almost random fashion. ... Other than the oddly extended attention devoted to the harsh irascibility of Elliot's unbendingly greedy mother, pic is pleasant enough on a moment-to-moment basis, but the separate sketches never coalesce into anything like a full group portrait.

Demetri Martin who plays the lead in Taking Woodstock.

Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly opined: 

There's very little of the authentic music and even less of the authentic vibe in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, a view of the legendary 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Festival as seen through the eyes of a gay, Jewish, aspiring interior designer and his immigrant parents ... On the other hand, if you want a big, crass dollop of British character actor Imelda Staunton doing a broad oy oy oy Jewish accent, you're in luck ... The movie is undergroovy and overplotted.

Ouch. Not exactly the kind of reviews one was hoping for. The rest of us will have to until August when the movie opens in the U.S.