All I Can Say | 2 out of 4 Stars | Not Rated
By Kyle Osborne
The “Bee Girl” was everywhere in 1993. You couldn’t turn on MTV without seeing the video for the Blind Melon song, “No Rain.” Interspersed with the inscrutable girl were the band members, performing a psychedelic sounding and looking monster hit. It would be their only one. Two years later, Shannon Hoon, the lead singer with the Jesus hair and rock star shades in that video, would die of a drug overdose on the band’s tour bus.
Hoon videotaped himself using a Hi-8 camera from 1990 until a few hours before his death in 1995. Hundreds of hours have been whittled down to a hundred minutes in the new documentary, “All I Can Say.” His self-recorded footage is the only visual used. The film is too much and not enough all at once, though Hoon’s original fans, many nearing middle-age at this point, may delight in the nostalgia of the time, something that Hoon captured on his rocket ride to the top.
Hoon’s video vault yielded notable moments: the band signs a contract, the band debates whether Hoon should appear alone on the cover of Rolling Stone or insist on a group shot, Hoon walking onstage butt-ass naked, and the birth of his daughter.
And yet, there is so much missing. He died of a drug overdose and had gone through rehab stints – but if there is an obvious decline, a free fall to serve as a cautionary tale, it is buried beneath many minutes of self-idulgent navel gazing and mundane moments that don’t advance the storyline.
Also, consider that when one records himself the results will be less revealing than if someone else is doing the observing. It’s human nature. There is, I know this sounds bad, too much Shannon Hoon and not enough of the people who were in his life contributing to his story. Understanding that the gimmick of “found footage” is an interesting draw, but mixing it with present day interviews from his survivors (and bandmates, hello?) would have provided some much needed insight. What made him tick? Did he forsee that the end of the road might have arrived sooner than he’d hoped, professionally speaking (he is seen with an interviewer answering the ‘one-hit wonder’question that would surely become more frequent). Was he a charismatic kid who everyone knew would “be somebody” someday? These questions remain unanswered.
Fans of music docs will find pieces to admire. Fans of Blind Melon will find even more. Either way, an immediate trip to Wikipedia will be required for more context once the final credits roll.
All I Can Say opens in virtual theaters June 26th, along with some brick and mortar locations. Full details at: https://allicansay.oscilloscope.net/
Kyle Osborne
Intriguing review. We still call it “the bee song” and we hear it played often. Thanks!
This intrigues me enough to seek out the film. Despite the one typo (“…this sounds band…”) your review conveys the essence of this doc. But it leaves me with questions. Who produced and directed the film? A family member? Friend? What do we know, if anything, about their motivation, why they made choices such as not doing contemporary interviews, and so forth.