Pleasure and Pain

Former Annie Liebowitz intern and rock photographer Danny Clinch’s facile documentary might as well be called Ben Harper 101: The roots rocker and singer-songwriter is shown in all his Hendrix-meets-Dylan-at-Marvin Gaye’s-pad glory. If you’ve never heard of Harper, you’re bound to come away with a working knowledge of his life and music, but if you’re already a fan, you’ll wonder why it’s so tough to get the essence of his groove on film (or tape). Much of that has to do with Harper’s emotionally volatile live shows; like the best artists, his work falls well outside of convenient labels and instead straddles an eclectic middle ground between blues, gospel, rock, soul, funk, and the dreaded jam band effect so prized by fans of Dead Phish. - Marc Savlov