'The Wrecking Crew' A Review

The Wrecking Crew is a rock & roll documentary about a group of studio musicians known by that same name that played on numerous hits in the 60's and 70's. Directed by Denny Tedesco as an homage to his father guitarist Tommy Tedesco the film is clearly a labor of love but unfortunately never manages to push past mildly interesting.

The extremely drawn out production of the film 1996 to 2014 and the inexperience of its director are starkly evident in its construction. Although the story of The Wrecking Crew is compelling a majority of the interviews were shot in the 90's on what appears to be mediocre video equipment,  dated cartoonish animated sequences are used for interstitials, and many of the interviews are edited together in such a way they aren't particularly cogent. All these elements combine to make the film feel more like something that would have been seen on PBS in the 90's rather than something appropriate for a movie theater in 2015.

The Wrecking Crew does have a lot of heart and the segments with Carol Kaye especially are extremely compelling. She talks about a specific song or session, she plays the bass riff that she was given, then she plays what she came up with which we all recognize from the hit song we know. Unfortunately all the other interviews don't have that same streamlined quality or the other interviewees the open, friendly, clarity of Kaye.

There is a great story to be told but after almost twenty years Tedesco was only mildly successful in telling it.

Rent It.