Eno: 'stimulating and cerebral' documentary that's never the same twice

A 'fascinating' look at the mercurial British musician and activist Brian Eno

Brian Eno in a garden surrounded by leaves and flowers.
Scenes will play in different orders for every screening of the documentary, giving it 52 quintillion possible iterations
(Image credit: Cecily Eno)

How do you capture in a conventional documentary "the mercurial character, the elastic creativity and the prolific and endlessly inventive output of an artist such as Brian Eno"? 

The answer "is that you can't", said Wendy Ide in The Observer. So rather than follow the standard rock star documentary format, and provide a "dutiful plod through talking-head interviews and archive footage", director Gary Hustwit came up with something entirely novel: a film that is different every time. 

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Common to many of these particles are warm, unguarded interviews with Eno at his home and studio in Norfolk, where he's seen layering sounds at his computer and out admiring shrubs in his garden." 

His Roxy Music co-stars, his collaborator David Bowie, "and a mixing-desk session with U2 are in the blend too". 

This "pick'n'mix doc" is not, ultimately, "as radical as it purports to be, or as revealing as it could have been", said Steve Rose in The Guardian. But it is "stimulating and cerebral", and Eno comes across as appealingly funny and self-deprecating.