Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind is a 2022 archival documentary film about American singer-songwriter Jerry Lee Lewis directed by Ethan Coen and edited by Tricia Cooke.
| Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind | |
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| Directed by | Ethan Coen |
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| Starring | Jerry Lee Lewis |
| Edited by | Tricia Cooke |
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| Distributed by | A24 |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
74 minutes long, the documentary combines pre-existing interviews with Lewis at different stages of his life and career with performance footage, and interviews with other people such as Myra Lewis Williams, his ex-wife and cousin, and country singer Mickey Gilley who was also his cousin.[1]
Coen and Cooke were approached by T-Bone Burnett during the COVID-19 pandemic with the idea of making an archival documentary with a process that could be completed at home, which was appealing at a time of widespread isolation and withdrawal from public activities. Coen described the idea as "too compelling to turn down". Cooke described it as "like a home movie project."[2][3]
Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian said it was "thoroughly enjoyable" and that it "does something very few films can: it makes you grin with pleasure."[4] The Hollywood Reporter describes a "a video mixtape chock-full of performances showing how even a man who rarely wrote his own songs could earn a place in the rock’n’roll pantheon. And that’s literally all it is.. Coen makes no effort to clear up the mythology [around Lewis]…Trouble in Mind may appeal mainly to roots-rock diehards and Coen Brothers super-completists".[5] Owen Gliebermann in Variety acknowledges Coen "uses almost nothing but old performance and TV-interview clips" but that he "combines them artfully, syncing them to his own pleasure centers—and ours."[6]
The film was shown at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2022.[7]
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