#gftb

Toronto Film Festival: As the fallen indie rock idol Jeff Buckley, Penn Badgley rocks it (and nails it) in 'Greetings from Tim Buckley,' a seductive piece of musical mumblecore

There is enough hidden family craziness, and 2:00 a.m. East Village cool, in Jeff Buckley’s story to make it obvious why a great many young actors have wanted to play him. Now one of them has — quite remarkably. In Greetings from Tim Buckley, Penn Badgley, from Gossip Girl, wears his dark hair in a high, coiffed, ’50s-on-acid pompadour, and he carries himself with the kind of spooky self-possession that says: “If I’m this possessed, just imagine how I might possess you.” At the same time, he’s slack and wary in the hipster style, with a passivity that’s really his way of insisting that you always come to him. Badgley, with tawny skin and popping eyes, looks like Johnny Depp with a touch of John Mellencamp. He’s a great camera subject (and a great singer — he does an eerily perfect impersonation of the Buckley wail), but what draws you to him in this movie is his private, almost invisible woe. {EW}

TIFF Review: Penn Badgley Is Solid In Otherwise Uneven 'Greetings From Tim Buckley'

While the film might not be quite as sweet and heady as drinking a glass of lilac wine, Penn Badgley's performance in "Greetings From Tim Buckley" does justice to the late Jeff Buckley, while also revealing that the "Gossip Girl" star has quite a few more talents than he's thus far been given credit for. But his swoop of wild hair and impressive vocal theatrics aside, the rest of the movie around him tells a trio of stories that never quite unite to land the emotional connection they're aiming for. 

Ben Rosenfield takes the part of Tim Buckley, and is as strong as Badgley. (...) the handful of scenes that do let Badgley be romantic or funny tend to liven the character and picture all at once. 

(...) But this is Badgley's show, with 'Greetings' eventually culminating with the concert, and Alagrant takes his time here. Badgley gets two numbers with the group assembled to play his father's tunes in addition to a grand finale all his own, which is appropriately a highlight. More than one sequence rolls along for too long, whether it's an early scene of Jeff going off on a Led Zeppelin III inspired a capella performance in a record store -- another moment for Badgley to present his pipes -- or a later crying fit that seems to come out of nowhere. 

There is no doubt that "Greetings From Tim Buckley" is respectful, and thanks to Badgley and Rosenfield, does justice to both singers. (...) given the parameters it has to work in, "Greetings From Tim Buckley" tends to work better than it should. [C+] {Indiewire}

The film gets the details right and refuses to dumb down. It expects you to know that a Hal Wilner production means something. It expects that glimpsing the cover of Led Zeppelin’s third album is enough context for a non-verbal a cappella version for “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You.” 

In terms of cred, ‘Greetings From Tim Buckley’ more than steps up to the plate. Having Penn Badgley in the lead is a major success as well. He nails Jeff’s jazzy quaver that always threatened but never delivered dissonance. 

The film’s style follow the music of both Buckleys, folksy and relaxed – however its low-budget shows as often New York City streets are shot in shallow focus to hide the dressing required to make the film look like 1991. I forgive the film these shortcomings due to the excellent performances, including Badgley’s closing number, which is a showstopper. {The Film Stage}

Penn Badgley always knew he could pull off playing Jeff Buckley.

“I choose my words carefully because I don’t want to be … whatever,” says Badgley, looking for the words to describe a scene in his new movie Greetings from Tim Buckley that elicited a spontaneous applause when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

In the scene, a pre-fame Buckley is wandering a record store with love interest Allie (Imogen Poots). As she holds up records, he simultaneously evokes and mocks the various styles of music in a signature Buckley falsetto. To say more would give things away, but it was a performance worthy of its rapturous reception.

“I was just happy I could do that for Jeff, in the sense that it was invoking him to the point where it was doing him justice,” says Badgley, best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on television’s Gossip Girl. “I’m not him and I can’t do what he did, but I could do that slice of him, and I’ve always been able to do it. Jeff could do things that I could never f–king do, never. But what was required for this story, I could do — all of it.”

In fact, Badgley felt so confident he could evoke enough of Buckley’s vocal sound that he chose the record store scene to use for his audition tape.

“The only audition tape that came in that took on that record store scene was Penn’s, and it was almost as you see it,” writer and director Dan Algrant says. “He just did it and took such risks, and anyone who’s going to take such risks on his audition is my guy. When we filmed it, I remember saying, ‘Keep going, be bold,’ because I would think Jeff would want him to be bold and bolder and boldest, and so we went that way.”

Algrant hopes that process of learning extends to watching the film, scoring it exclusively with Tim’s haunting music in the hopes of bringing it to an otherwise unfamiliar audience. But for Badgley, who played the guitar and sang everything live for the film, it was the chance to explore the younger Buckley’s music that proved to be the biggest learning experience.

“For a month I studied his s–t and then I left it,” he says. “I was actually writing my own music more than ever, and it was a really inspiring thing. The most beautiful thing an artist can do is to speak to people, make them cry and inspire them to create art. That’s what Jeff did for me.” {National Post}

"Jeff was a musician who I've definitely felt- you know, the way that you love a musician when you're a teenager. I went through a brief phase with him. I don't know why it was brief, because now I feel like I understand his music in a way that I would never let it go, but for some reason it was brief. So I listened to him obsessively. Incidently, with Led Zeppelin III a bunch, when I was 17, it always will hold a dear place in my heart." {Penn to Variety}

Jeff Buckley Film Gets New Director, While Penn Badgley Shines in Tim Buckley Film

(...) But another movie with Jeff Buckley– who died in 1997 at age 30 from an accidental drowning– as a central character is ready for release: “Greeting from Tim Buckley” stars “Gossip Girl” actor Penn Badgley as Jeff Buckley.  Badgley will leave “Gossip Girl” when it ends this season to have a movie career thanks to his surprising works as the late, lamented singer. He turns out to be a charming musical presence in “Greetings,” a would be John Mayer.

"I bet no one walks out of that movie just thinking about Jeff. They're thinking about their parents," the film's star, Penn Badgley (of Gossip Girl fame), told Rolling Stone the day after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Tim Buckley's music is featured prominently throughout the film (and the soundtrack may be packaged with the DVD when it is available), but Algrant also chose to replicate the concert in real time, with real musicians, at the original church. He even brought back Hal Willner to produce, and Jeff's eventual co-writer, Gary Lucas, played himself.

Badgley does an impressive turn as Jeff, who was known for his extraordinary range and vocal acrobatics. The actor was hired after he sent in an audition tape of the record store scene, in which he sings in a mercurial, impromptu fashion.

"He did that shit in general," explains Badgley. "He was a weirdo, this erratic, ecstatic, beautiful, strange thing."

Taking on the role of Jeff and having to do all the singing himself is like an actress trying to take on Mariah Carey. "Trust me, it was super-ballsy thing to think I could do it, but I could," acknowledges the 25-year-old, who played guitar from age 13 to 17 and picked it up again for the movie. "With Jeff, I can't do everything he could do, but this specific slice of him, I can do that.

"I feel very satisfied and happy with how we handled them," he adds of the father and son subjects. "We did it very responsibly and artfully. I don't think we exploited them in any capacity."

Badgley has even started playing small, unannounced gigs in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side at the invitation of friends. "I'm now for the first time in this community of musicians," he said. {Rolling Stone}

Ben Rosenfield's impression of Penn's performance as Jeff: "Oh, I mean, it's great. Penn is such a sweet, like, sincere, wonderful guy. And he worked so hard, this project meant so much to him. And you know, he put the work in it, and it really payed it off. I just think he created a really beautiful character, and wonderful interpretation. And was true to himself, and to Jeff, so, and that's excellent, so I really- he did a great job." {Tribute @ 2:57}

Turns out Penn Badgley is not just another pretty face – apparently he has a pretty voice as well. Who would've thought "Gossip Girl"'s Dan Humphrey could carry a tune? In his latest film, "Greetings From Tim Buckley," Badgley manages to capture the very essence of one of the most ethereal musicians of the '90s, Jeff Buckley.

We caught up with a particularly chatty Badgley to talk about how he prepared to play an iconic music artist, his own personal music background and, of course, his hair.

"I didn't even listen to him that much leading up to [filming the movie]. I studied him for like a week. Think about it: an entire week of watching one person. But the key there is evoking his qualities and being natural myself and letting the qualities that I have take over as opposed to mimicking him. Mimicry, to me, would have been the worst thing we could have done to this movie because he's not Ray Charles or Johnny Cash. He's this mysterious, misunderstood, weird, tragic icon. And to do him justice, you gotta do something different. I'm only using those examples because that's what everybody's like, they see that and they're like, "You have to look and sound and be exactly like him." And that's not what we were gonna do. There are plenty of biopics where they don't do that but I think that's become the standard … We're trying to get to a deeper, larger soul. We weren’t trying to be some big, bombastic "Look at Jeff Buckley" – it was more like 'Look at Jeff Buckley, just for a second.'"

"I'm talking so much because, for the first time, I'm so proud."

"I stopped playing the guitar for about eight years so, when I got this movie, I was like, "Oh, s**t.""

"[What you see on screen] is all live too. We all did it. The whole concert, everything was real. We played the concert without stopping all the way through. We just did that three times. Thank God it all worked. But the real important thing is that the reason anybody watching the movie feels something is because it was simple and honest and real. And that's the coolest thing about it." {Next Movie}

Penn: It was daunting, I was nervous as hell, I knew nobody thought I could do it. But it's like, I'm not, like I said, there are parts of Jeff that I can't emulate at all, and wouldn't want to try, you know? And there are parts of him that nobody should ever try to emulate because that's... Jeff.

Dan: I was really searching for months and months, and Avy Kaufman said "have you seen this? Penn's tape, just look at Penn's tape!" I said "who's Penn and what's Penn's tape?" I thought it was like some labyrinth of some sort, and his tape, Jacob's ladder, you know?

Penn: *laughing* What does that mean? Keep going, it's good, the mythology is good.

Dan: So, we went into the office, and I saw the tape, and I got lucky. I wasn't gonna make the film till I saw the tape, I was gonna decide not to, and then-

Penn: Really?

Dan: Yeah, there was no point, there was no point.

Greetings from Tim Buckley

*hugs* 

I think most of the haters will watch it, in fact, I've read people saying they went there willing to hate it, and ended up liking it.

The film hasn't done too bad, Penn got positive reviews all around, and the film got mixed ones. I really hope it'll find a distributor because I need to watch it on the big screen.