‘Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind’ Review: Ethan Coen’s First Solo Outing Spotlights Lewis’s Timelessly Wild Rock ‘n’ Roll Joy

variety.com:

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen a documentary gets made, as an off-ramp passion project, by a noted filmmaker who normally directs fiction films, there’s a special curiosity and excitement to seeing the angle — and the kind of craft — he’s going to bring to it. “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind” is the first movie directed by Ethan Coen all by himself.

Ethan, of course, has always stood a bit in the shadow of his older brother Joel (who for a long time took lone directing credit on the Coen brothers’ films, even though they were complex collaborations).

So though it’s “just” a music documentary, this is Ethan’s chance to strut his solo stuff. And he does, in a very Ethan Coen way: clever, modest, borderline invisible, but with a kick that sneaks up on you. “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind” is only 73 minutes long, and it tells the story of the great wild man of rock ‘n’ roll using almost nothing but old TV footage — performances that stretch back over six decades — and interviews that were also done primarily for television, often times on famous talk shows of the ’70s and ’80s.

A lot of documentaries, especially these days, can wow you with the density of archival footage that gets poured into them: the home movies, the photographs and diaries and scrapbooks, the visual history and detailed private lives made public. “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind” isn’t that kind of movie.