'Music of Strangers' review: Yo-Yo Ma's restless search for purpose in music
A documentary focused on Yo-Yo Ma's world music supergroup practically sells itself. The fact that it's the latest from director Morgan Neville - whose last film ("Twenty Feet from Stardom") won the Academy Award for Best Documentary - is the cherry on top. "The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble" (opening in select cities June 24) is a thoughtful, existential journey that asks ponderous questions about purpose - however, it's mired in too many different personal profiles to adequately explore its weighty soul-searching themes.
In short: This documentary chronicles how and why master cellist Yo-Yo Ma created the eclectic collective of international master musicians known as "The Silk Road Ensemble." (Watch the trailer)
At the core of this sprawling, beautifully shot and globetrotting documentary is a simple question: "why does music matter?" The fact that one of the best living musicians in the world is asking the question gives it significance. He is known worldwide as one of, if not the, best cellists in the world - yet the master artist continues to examine the purpose of creating music ... an endeavor he has committed virtually his entire life.
It's the driving impetus behind Yo-Yo Ma's effort to form the eclectic group of master musicians - a sort of Avengers of world music. The master assembles musicians and artists from various corners of the world - from China to Iran to Spain - in a bid to create something beyond his own personal work. And this is where "Music of Strangers" loses focus and energy.
This documentary sets up an expectation: master musicians looking to push themselves in new and exciting ways. Instead of exploring what it means to blend established art forms to create a wholly new music genre, "Strangers" gets mired in the profiles of featured musicians from embattled or struggling corners of the world. In fairness, Neville selects a handful of compelling artists who share Yo-Yo Ma's journey to find purpose in music. Their individual personal stories could make for incredible short documentaries - but weaving these disparate personal accounts into the larger "how and why" the Silk Road Ensemble exists leaves this film fairly muddled.
"Music of Strangers" is at its best when it addresses the complicated technical and cultural aspects of forming one supergroup from comprised of musicians playing unconventional instrument from all over the world - from the Spanish bagpipe to the Chinese pipa to the Iranian stringed kamancheh. "Strangers" kicks off with a vibrant and electric Silk Road Ensemble performance in the streets of Istanbul - but the rest of the movie fails to live up to this rousing performance.
The documentary too quickly glosses over the complicated process of marrying these instruments together into one cohesive ensemble - as well as the "cultural tourism" criticism against co-opting coveted cultural musical instruments into one international sound. The very existence of the Silk Road Ensemble and the challenge of creating new music lends itself to exciting exploration -- however, "Strangers" instead opts to indulge a meandering series of personal vignettes. Yes, the lives of the featured Silk Road musicians are tragic and their journeys parallel Yo-Yo Ma's search for purpose -- but the hour-and-a-half long documentary simply doesn't do its subjects, or their stories, justice.
Final verdict: "The Music of Stranger" exhilarates while reveling in music as an artistic expression and the pure joy of creating music - but this documentary gets bogged down amid personal stories.
Score: 3/5
"The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble," which screened during the 42nd Seattle International Film Festival, opens in theaters nationwide June 24. This film is rated PG-13 has a running time of 96 minutes.
