A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake (2002)

Powerful

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I first heard the music of Nick Drake at a tenant's apartment my mom was renting out to in 1995. His name was Matt, he was a musician just like me, and he owned the Fruit Tree lp set. We were in his kitchen and right before he played Five Leaves Left he said, "This is Nick Drake, I think you'll like him" and he was absolutely right. As "Time Has told me" was playing, on that cold damp grey morning, I immediately took to liking the music a lot and empathizing with this somber voice, plucking an acoustic guitar, and just knew it was great immediately. Now, I didn't rush out to get the Nick Drake records since they were so rare to find, this was pre Amazon.com and e-bay folks. But then a couple of years later Rykodisc re-issued the Fruit Tree lp's on cd. I immediately bought it and devoured the music and listened to it endlessly and intensely. His life and music, have never left me since. I often found a kinship and solace in what he was expressing and began to feel less alone with how I felt at times. Especially in my late teens and early twenties, when I found myself always on the outside of society's pressures of conformity, and the desire to express so much to people that I had conflict with in my life, or to women that enticed me, and not being able to find the right words to say.On the surface, Nick Drake's music seems to be the perfect accompaniment to college life, cafe sitting, and or people watching at first listen. But if you dig a little deeper, his music begins to embody that tongue-tied, outcast feeling, yet, in his words and music, there was always this acceptance of it, for better or worse, and the glimmer of hope that something better was just beyond the horizon. You start to hear in his words and music his wants, fears, struggles, and desires and you begin to identify with this extremely vulnerable yet strikingly poetic man. And the lyrics, chord structure, and playing, are just superb and top-notch, mixing folk, blues, jazz, and classical so effortlessly.It's a shame no one filmed Drake on his short and ultimately unsuccessful college tour as his producer Joe Boyd described. But in a way, that just adds to the mystique surrounding his life and music. I love the part where the producers behind Bryter Layter deconstruct "At the Chime of a City Clock" and one of them starts to bob their head to the jazzy groove of the song. The tape of Molly Drake, Nick's mother, played by his sister Gabrielle, provides a much needed insight into Nick's inspiration musically as well.As a Nick Drake fan, it would've been great to hear more from Joe Boyd about what the recording of the song "Which Will" was like or at least to have used it in the film which I think was his best song. But all of his songs are great. It would've also been nice to hear from Richard Thompson from Fairport Convention who played lead guitar on Nick's first two records and hear his viewpoint on the myth surrounding Drake's life and music and what it was like to work with him in the studio.It's so sad when his mother speaks about how he felt he had failed to reach the people he wanted to speak to with his music and that he couldn't write any more songs. It's just so completely the opposite to me because he succeeded tremendously in connecting his own trials and tribulations with other people's struggles and why people who discover his music pass the message of his life and music to others, because it means that much.This review is more than just a review of a film of a folk singer. It's an homage to Nick Drake because his music has helped me and probably many others, young and old, with their own internal demons. If you haven't listened to Nick Drake, please do so and watch this documentary. If you're already a fan you won't be disappointed.

I have to disagree with whomever opined that this documentary will be of interest only to Nick Drake fans. The cinematography, for one, should be a draw, it being on the level of, oh, Girl With a Pearl Earring or Dead Poet's Society. Also, the director's use of manipulation - superimposing images that move over a single cityscape, for example - is worth seeing, several times. And some of the lingering shots of English countryside are stunning and evoke a strong sense of Drake's music, which often delved into setting, using it as a character sometimes.I do agree with those who regretted there was not enough info/anecdotes from the persons "interviewed" in the film, outside older sister & actress, Gabrielle. Where was John Martyn (and/or Beverly Martyn), who affectionately called Nick "The Guv'nor?" And what of musicians who played on Drake's first two LPs? Some of them are still with us...like Richard Thompson or Danny Thompson or John Cale, whose gorgeous keyboards in "Northern Sky" help that performance SOAR. And certainly Joe Boyd must be able to talk more about Nick than was shown in the film.Nonetheless, I am grateful for having seen it - a few days ago actually, on TV (one of the Starz channels, I believe). I hope I come across it again one of these moons. As a fan since 1971 - when the first U.S. compilation (of the 1st two LPs) came out on Island - I am pleased and moved to hear more from this unique songwriter, singer, and guitarist. Does anyone REALLY write, sing, and play like him?

I saw this about 3 years ago and was fortunate enough to be at a screening afterwards which there was a question and answer session with the director. The film itself is beautifully shot with nice sweeping camera shots over the English countryside which accurately evoke the organic nature of Nick Drake's music. The only moving images of Nick Drake as a child playing on a beach is a treat for hardcore fans like myself. From what the director said this was not someone jumping on the bandwagon of posthumous hype that has been created since what is regarded by many as the corporate violation of drake's music. The director crafted this documentary in such a way that it satisfies the itching curiosity of fans wishing to get closer to this mysterious folk icon at the same time as it stands alone as intelligent piece of film-making.

Landscapes that collapse into the music of Nick Drake. This film is not a bleak homage to the complexity of Nick, but rather a celebration of his simplicity. If you, like me, love his music, then the high point will be the final moments of the film where we find old footage of Nick as a toddler.You will quickly find yourself reflecting back a knowing smile.