SURE TO BREAK box office records this fall is Barenaked in America, Jason Priestley’s documentary about joke-rockin’ collegiates and fellow Canadians the Barenaked Ladies. The New York Times‘ Elvis Mitchell has already called the film “the most breathtaking marriage of celluloid, sound, and image I’ve seen in years . . . [that] should inspire an entire generation of young cineastes to aim higher, to try harder, to capture the elusive nuances of rock bands philosophizing about why they’re ‘just trying to have a good time, y’know?'” Well, Mitchell is in luck, because several of Priestley’s Beverly Hills, 90210 costars have also decided to helm documentaries about their favorite Canadian bands. Coming soon to a theater near you:
Tragically Yours Luke Perry, formerly the brooding, misunderstood heartthrob Dylan, shows another dimension of his talent by documenting a month in the life of the Ontario quintet—and Seattle favorites—The Tragically Hip. The film’s highlight comes at a drunken after-show party, where vocalist Gordon Downie and bassist Gord Sinclair come to blows in a dispute over which “Gordie” Perry’s attractive production assistant had been coming on to.
Thank You, India Tori Spelling borrows her dad Aaron Spelling’s jet and production crew to follow Alanis Morissette on her “spiritual journey” to Bengal. There, “the ironic one” prances through the city at night, discussing the pressures of being a child star with the director and scaring the city’s lepers with her yodeling.
And Now the Legacy Begins Although Brian Austin Green’s rap album One Stop Carnival was so universally disliked it could’ve been called The Buck Stops Here, his love for hip-hop hasn’t dimmed, as proven by this documentary on Toronto rappers The Dream Warriors. Be sure to catch the all-star freestyle session, when the Warriors are joined by Guru of Gang Starr, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One, and—for the half a verse he manages before getting cut off by everyone in the room—Green himself.
Please Forgive Me Cute-as-a-button Tiffani-Amber Thiessen updates Jean-Luc Godard’s controversial One Plus One, which combined footage of the Black Panthers with scenes of the Rolling Stones recording “Sympathy for the Devil.” Her new film cuts between MOR icon Bryan Adams struggling with the arrangement of his newest global smash “I Have Such a Hard Time Saying I Love You, Babe (But Not Doing It)” and teenage girls trying on outfits at an LA shopping mall, hanging at the food court, and wondering aloud “whose party are we gonna go to tonight?” before driving off—dig the synchronicity—in a black Jaguar.