One’s enthusiasm for Jack Kerouac’s deeply personal prose will determine your reaction to a new documentary on the short-lived legend.
“One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur” manages to capture the fire, personality and contradictions inherent in the author’s work.
That translates into a rootless, but artfully composed feature gathering some of Kerouac’s inner circle as well as a minor constellation of stars eager to orbit his still vibrant persona.
Be warned … or be teased by a documentary eager to heap praise on a man who died young but left an indelible legacy.
“One Fast Move” attempts to recreate the mindset behind “Big Sur,” Kerouac’s quasi-autobiographical reaction to the insta-fame afforded him by “On the Road’s” belated release in 1957.
Celebrity clearly didn’t suit the moody artist, which means it’s a good thing he wasn’t born in this era of TMZ and US Weekly.
So he tried to insulate him from his growing cult of personality, retreating to a cabin in Northern California’s Big Sur to reclaim himself. Naturally, a gaggle of his friends visited him during his manufactured exile, all of which became fodder for “Big Sur.”
“One Fast Move” almost feels like beat poetry with its many talking heads and clipped tones. We hear from some of the people who knew Kerouac best as well as a new generation of artists, like actors Donal Logue and Amber Tamblyn, drawn to the author’s ageless interpretations of modern life.
The film’s original score, crafted by Jay Farrar of Son Volt with additional material by Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard, affords more modern day fans a way to say, “thank you” to Kerouac, who died at 47 from alchohol abuse.
Much of the commentary quickly falls into hero worship, a sin committed by ex-girlfriends as well as admirers like singer Patti Smith. The grainy images of Kerouac help ground the material, showing him as a ruggedly handsome man whose prose gave countless readers a new way to interpret – and cope with – their realities.
“One Fast Move” brings the Beat Generation back to life with remarkable clarity, all the while celebrating its reluctant hero. in a forum ideally suited to his enduring appeal.
NOTE: The film is currently playing in select theaters, but it’s also being released Oct. 20 in a limited edition box set including a DVD of the movie, the soundtrack, a paperback copy of Big Sur, never before seen photos and an excerpt of unpublished manuscript from Kerouac.
(Photo: Singer Dar Williams, one of many young artists who admire the work of Jack Kerouac, is seen at the cabin where Kerouac sought refuge in the late 1950s in “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur.”
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