LOVES SHINES (Douglas Arrowsmith, Canada). 87 minutes. See more Hot Docs reviews. Rating: NNNN
He’s been wowing audiences for two decades and is adored by the likes of Elvis Costello and Steve Earle, but Ron Sexsmith has never had a hit record – which, as we discover in Douglas Arrowsmith’s sympathetic profile, is eating away at him like a cancer.
Love Shines follows the singer/songwriter to Los Angeles for the 2009 recording sessions of his album Long Player Late Bloomer, where he’s enlisted mega-producer Bob Rock to infuse his melancholy, introspective songs with pop appeal.
The more time they spend in the studio, the less likely it seems that Rock will succeed. Sexsmith just doesn’t write top 40 material, and his introverted stage presence is another impediment to connecting with the masses. (In the end, as good as Long Player Late Bloomer is, it sounds pretty much like every other Ron Sexsmith album.)
Intercutting Rock’s efforts in the studio with Sexsmith’s 2003 trip home to St. Catharines and his 2006 performance at Massey Hall, Arrowsmith crafts a psychologically dense portrait of an artist whose single-minded pursuit of commercial success threatens to overwhelm his art.
He’s not his own worst enemy, exactly, but he’s not helping the situation either.
