Singer-songwriter (and novelist and screenwriter) Nick Cave is a longtime record of fear, erotic attachment, morality, and death. Director Andrew Dominik proved to be a proper collaborator with Cave in the 2016 documentary “One More Time With Feeling”, not exactly the screwball comedy guy (“Killing Them Softly”). ..
The movie was a tricky proposal that was launched in 2015 when Cave’s teenage son Arthur died. It’s a record of the creation of Cave and one of his bands, the Skeleton Tree, and is Badseed’s most moving record.
Filmed in the spring of 2021 before the tour, the new “This Much I Know to Be True” is a lighter event, focused primarily on releasing songs from recent albums “Ghosteen” and “Carnage”. It starts by talking about how Cave dealt with the pandemic. “I was advised by the government,” he paused with a laugh and said, “and was retrained as a potter.” After that, he shows off a sculpture depicting the history of the devil.
Warren Ellis, a multi-instrumentalist who is Cave’s musical partner, is another major presence here. (Cave’s strong friend Marianne Faithfull appears in a memorable scene.) Cave Wax is crazy about their collaboration. Take out each member of the bad species one by one. I know I’m going next. More seriously, he talks about Red Hand Files, his newsletter, and a kind of metaphysical advice column. There, he exercises compassion, admitting that he “doesn’t come naturally.”
Dominique shows off his own original playfulness here. He shifts the aspect ratio from shot to shot. He devised a movie-like twist by displaying the dolly track on the shot. He then forged the viewer with a lighting trick. A pretty fun Nick Cave movie may not have been on the 2022 Bingo Card, but it’s here.
I know this is true
Unrated. Execution time: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Take a look at Mubi.
