Thanks to Taylor Swift’s blockbusting Eras movie, going to the cinema is the new rock ’n roll, the multiplex the sensible suburban alternative to the mosh-pit. Where better, then, to experience the head-banging force of nature that is James Blunt – who has unleashed his new documentary upon cinema-goers for one night only.
Blunt is the musical equivalent of Marmite if everyone hated Marmite – even the person who invented it. So goes the cliché anyway. But this agreeable film pushes past the stereotype of Blunt as the second coming of Chris de Burgh and delivers an affecting portrait of a posh pop star who has endured a lifetime of vitriol.
The marketing for James Blunt: One Brit Wonder suggests a comedic take on Blunt’s life and times: one blurb describes it as “cross between Spinal Tap and Alan Partridge”. In fact, Blunt is among the most self-aware people in music – as is obvious from his devastatingly witty Twitter feed. He has also had genuine challenges. He witnessed terrible violence serving as a reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards in Kosovo in 1999 and seems to have never quite recovered from the trauma of being packed off to boarding school aged eight.
James Blunt on Twitter may be the only good thing to come out of the internet in the past decade. However, Chris Atkins’s enjoyable profile takes its time getting to that social media renaissance and initially focuses on Blunt’s early years of struggle as an earnest songwriter cursed with an upper-crust accent.
I will always appreciate people like James Blunt and Josh Groban being really witty and charismatic despite making music I think is really bland, it’s good when people have a sense of humor, especially about themselves.
James Blunt knows his music is simple Pop, but he’s aware of that and got pretty rich.
And yet he is married to a Lady, daughter of a peer, is extremely wealthy and has more wit than 98%. Green eyed monster methinks.
One of the faster celebrity guests on Top Gear. Also stopped WW3 from happening, so there’s that as well.
5 comments
***From The Telegraph’s Ed Power:***
Thanks to Taylor Swift’s blockbusting Eras movie, going to the cinema is the new rock ’n roll, the multiplex the sensible suburban alternative to the mosh-pit. Where better, then, to experience the head-banging force of nature that is James Blunt – who has unleashed his new documentary upon cinema-goers for one night only.
Blunt is the musical equivalent of Marmite if everyone hated Marmite – even the person who invented it. So goes the cliché anyway. But this agreeable film pushes past the stereotype of Blunt as the second coming of Chris de Burgh and delivers an affecting portrait of a posh pop star who has endured a lifetime of vitriol.
The marketing for James Blunt: One Brit Wonder suggests a comedic take on Blunt’s life and times: one blurb describes it as “cross between Spinal Tap and Alan Partridge”. In fact, Blunt is among the most self-aware people in music – as is obvious from his devastatingly witty Twitter feed. He has also had genuine challenges. He witnessed terrible violence serving as a reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards in Kosovo in 1999 and seems to have never quite recovered from the trauma of being packed off to boarding school aged eight.
James Blunt on Twitter may be the only good thing to come out of the internet in the past decade. However, Chris Atkins’s enjoyable profile takes its time getting to that social media renaissance and initially focuses on Blunt’s early years of struggle as an earnest songwriter cursed with an upper-crust accent.
**Read the full review here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/james-blunt-one-brit-wonder-review/**
I will always appreciate people like James Blunt and Josh Groban being really witty and charismatic despite making music I think is really bland, it’s good when people have a sense of humor, especially about themselves.
James Blunt knows his music is simple Pop, but he’s aware of that and got pretty rich.
And yet he is married to a Lady, daughter of a peer, is extremely wealthy and has more wit than 98%. Green eyed monster methinks.
One of the faster celebrity guests on Top Gear. Also stopped WW3 from happening, so there’s that as well.