Reviewed by Neil Davey
Featuring Chet Baker, Carol Baker, Vera baker, Paul Baker,
Dean Baker, Missy Baker, Dick Bock, William F Claxton,
Hersh Hamel, Chris Isaak, Lisa Marie, Andy Minsker,
Jack Sheldon, Lawrence Trimble, Joyce Night Tucker
Certification UK 15
Runtime 120 minutes
Directed by Bruce Weber
A famous photographer decides to make a film about a famous jazz musician. Photography and jazz. Photography. Jazz. Hmm... Let's Get Lost's ancestry thus suggested two possible outcomes: The “glass half full” option of wonderful music and stunning imagery combined into a still shallow whole; or the “glass half empty” option of complete and utter art-wank of the artiest, wankiest kind. Remarkably Let's Get Lost found a third outcome: a beautiful, immensely moving portrait of the death of cool.
Made in 1988, during what turned out to be the last year of Baker's life, this 20th anniversary reissue shows a film that hasn't aged in the slightest, a haunting, lyrical portrait of a performer who hit his full potential less frequently than he hit the bottle or the needle. Weber doesn't shy away from this darker side of his chosen subject. Baker was a liar and a junkie. Baker was also an astonishingly beautiful young man — the “jazz James Dean” as some called it — and appeared to have the world at his feet for the strength of his playing, and a velvet-toned singing voice that could break your heart (seriously, go to iTunes now, and listen to his version of My Funny Valentine). And Weber, while clearly — and understandably — smitten with his subject, shows all sides.
If you've seen Let's Get Lost before, see it again. It's not lost a drop of its power or beauty. If you've never seen it, you have a treat in store.