‘Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind’ Film Review: Ethan Coen Shakes the House With Rock Doc

thewrap.com:

so much fun to make,” Coen said when he introduced the film before its Cannes Film Festival premiere in the Salle Bunuel on Sunday night. “I know people always say that, but in this case, it’s true.

Jerry Lee Lewis is … ” He paused and shook his head. “He’s a trip, man.”Yes, Jerry Lee Lewis is a trip. And yes, the best word for “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind” is fun, because it’s impossible to watch The Killer pump those keys without a big grin.The opening scene is enough to show you Coen’s priorities: It’s a clip from “The Ed Sullivan Show” of Lewis performing the Mickey Newbury country lament “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye,” and it’s nothing like the full-on rock ‘n’ roll assaults that Lewis is best known for.

But even this relatively quiet performance from 1970 is a delicious treat – because in the smallest of gestures, the hint of a smirk, the raised hand before it comes down on the piano, Lewis displays a casual virtuosity that lets you see the wild man he still could be if he felt like it.“Trouble in Mind” is full of gems, and to Coen’s credit, he lets many of the performances play out at full length; this isn’t a doc that keeps cutting away from the songs so that we can hear people talk about the songs.

There is a lot of interview footage with Lewis from over the years, but it’s assembled playfully: He might start a story in a clip from the ’50s and finish it in the ’70s, with a couple of detours to other decades along the way.It also drops the biographical tidbits as casually as possible: Of course, it mentions that he married his 13-year-old cousin, but Jerry Lee doesn’t make a big deal of it so neither does the movie.