A long ride into the influential world of The Replacements
How do you tell the story of a rock band without showing any pictures or videos, playing any music, or interviewing the band? By talking to the fans. That is the idea behind “Color Me Obsessed,” a documentary about the Minneapolis band The Replacements.
Director Gorman Bechard talked to over 150 Replacements fans and friends including actors Tom Arnold, Dave Foley, and George Wendt and musicians Tommy Ramone, Dan Zanes, members of the Goo Goo Dolls, and many more. But while the documentary is stacked with people telling tales of what the band has meant to them in their lives, the film flat by showing many of these fans searching for words and ideas in long takes that probably would have been more compelling through better editing. It seemed that Bechard felt that he needed to give all of the interviewees their due in the documentary regardless of how meaningful and important their information truly was. Bechard also included statistics showing sales of each of The Replacements album compared to the highest selling record that year. The difference was thousands compared to millions. This was apparently to show that even though The Replacements have been such an influential band, at the time there greatness was not recognized in album sales. This could be said for many other influential bands of the day also when compared to the likes of Bon Jovi, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen.
Overall, the documentary mostly suffers from very loose editing. Rolling in at just over two hours, this would have been a much more compelling film if it were thirty minutes shorter. And while the idea of not showing any images or hearing any of the music of the band and only hearing stories of the drunken escapades and bad concert experiences of the band from the fans, I believe “Color Me Obsessed” will leave the casual viewer wondering what all this obsession is about.
