Patti Smith: Dream of Life

A window into the mind of a renegade poet

By CARRIGAN DENNY-BROWN

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"How does it feel to be a rock icon?" someone asks Patti Smith, to which she replies, "I hate that question." Speaking hypothetically on how the question of her immortality as an artist plagues her, she goes on, "I hate that question because it always makes me think of Mount Rushmore."

In that moment, I realized I loved Patti Smith. In fact, it was that and countless other intimate, strange and perfectly candid moments, weaving a heart of gold into the surprisingly delicate life of cult rocker Patti Smith. Narrated by Smith herself, Dream of Life's documentary lens is like the artist's shadow as she performs at concerts, dallies backstage and unwinds at home. Backed with award-winning cinematography, the footage is hazily imbued with Smith's interior life. Like her good friend, Allen Ginsberg, her philosophic musings often center on the poetics of the everyday. "Life isn't some vertical or horizontal line," she says. "You have your own internal world and it's not neat. Therefore, the importance and the beauty of music, sound, noise."

As a documentary, the film is a little unfocused and loses momentum in Smith's pontificating. It is quite exciting, then, when Smith proves herself a proponent of noise in her spirited live performances. While she is undoubtedly a product and figure of another generation, I can't help but be stirred by the relevance of her tirades when she heaves "Fuck you" at George W. Bush. This is so much more legit than Madonna singing the horrible "Give it 2 Me" while a screen behind her flashes pictures of McCain with Hitler and starving children.

Smith screams, "I'm tired of society and economics!" And I'm thinking this might be something we start hearing in the streets. "You wanna be free from society? It's hard, you gotta take a lot of shit. But it's the only fucking chance you got. Don't buy it."

PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE

RATED | NR

NOW PLAYING | KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA