When You're Strange

Move review from The Movie Snob

When You're Strange (B+). This is a documentary about The Doors, a 60's era rock band that, according to the narration by Johnny Depp (Chocolat), still sells a million albums a year. I'm probably the perfect audience for the film--somebody who has long liked The Doors' music but has never been interested enough to read a book about them and doesn't really know their history. The entire movie consists of archival footage and photographs of the band, in and out of concert, and the narration traces the band's arc from 1965 to 1970. Of course the film focuses heavily on lead singer Jim Morrison, who drank himself to death at age 27, and there are lots of clips of Morrison driving through a desert, apparently from a film project that was never completed. The narration gets a little banal at times, but otherwise this is a solid, enjoyable film . . . if you like The Doors.