Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind

If the American culture industry has taught us anything, it’s that there’s such a thing as talent, which can be harnessed in order to generate very high levels of mass excitement. It seems that Lewis learned that from Presley and decided he wanted to get in on some of that action, and to enjoy the benefits to the max. While that may have produced some destructive consequences, one ought not forget that it also means dedicating one’s life to a form of professionalism that requires work work work.

Poignant and incisive portrait of Lewis is a masterful stitching together of various archival sources by Coen that gives a gracious and honest view of Lewis' different facets. Knowing little about Lewis beyond his position in the general pop culture of the 50s and 60s, it was his transition into a (still flamboyant) country/gospel artist that was most fascinating; the dips in and out of interviews with Lewis over the years gives this the feel of a dreamlike death-bed confession at times.