At one level within the free-wheeling music documentary “Swamp Dogg Will get His Pool Painted,” the eccentric 82-year-old musician is requested to explain his philosophy on life. “Simply be cool, you understand?,” Swamp Dogg says. “And it’s enjoyable being your self. That’s enjoyable like a motherfucker. However you gotta end up.”
It’s a becoming abstract of a inventive life lived precisely on his personal phrases. A cult determine in sure music circles, Jerry Williams Jr. rose to prominence within the ’70s for his satirical Southern soul information that have been equally prone to characteristic radical political messages or cowl artwork of Williams inside a scorching canine bun lined in ketchup and mustard. He adopted the Swamp Dogg moniker to separate his public persona from his earlier profession as a Muscle Shoals producer who churned out gold information for different artists, although he continued to be a drive within the music business as a report label founder and producer who backed Dr. Dre’s first information. And he continues to innovate into his eighties, experimenting with autotune banjo music from his residence studio and touring repeatedly.
However in Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson’s new documentary, Swamp Dogg’s lifetime of achievements takes a backseat to a extra urgent matter: getting his pool painted. In an unspecified location within the San Fernando Valley, Swamp Dogg lives in a suburban enclave of creativity. His home is crammed with loving freeloaders, primarily musician associates like Guitar Shorty, who requested to crash with him at one level or one other and ended up staying for many years. The home is a hotbed for jam classes and barbecues, however Swamp Dogg thinks it’s lacking one factor. He desires an image of himself using a rodent painted on the underside of his pool in order that it may be seen from the sky.
“Swamp Dogg Will get His Pool Painted” begins with Swamp Dogg letting the pool painter into his yard, nevertheless it rapidly turns right into a sprawling hold session that includes his housemates, neighbors like voice actor Tom Kenny, and his daughter. Swamp Dogg reminisces about his singular profession, which ultimately provides solution to some compulsory archival footage, however the movie is simply as involved in celebrating the zest for all times that the octogenarian at the moment enjoys. The result’s a documentary that’s as charmingly offbeat as its topic, whose biggest murals could be the ridiculously enjoyable existence he seems to be dwelling out every day.
Music documentaries have been nearly irritatingly omnipresent in recent times, however “Swamp Dogg Will get His Pool Painted” is a refreshing change of tempo that ought to delight even probably the most genre-fatigued viewer. The movie by no means takes itself too critically, gleefully pausing mid-interview to point out Swamp Dogg answering his cellphone and politely telling somebody that he’ll need to name them again as a result of he’s in the midst of taking pictures a documentary. It actually advantages from the truth that its topic shall be unknown to many viewers, which frees the filmmakers from the expectation of a hagiographic journey down reminiscence lane and allows them to deal with no matter pursuits their topic at a given second.
After all, the method is simply potential as a result of the person getting his pool painted is so rattling charismatic. At 82-years-old, Swamp Dogg doesn’t look a day over 60, and he boasts a razor-sharp thoughts and an infectious urge for food for all of life’s bizarre pleasures. Watching him meander via his yard, speaking shit together with his buddies, exploring new sounds, and dryly calling each inconvenience a “motherfucker” is the form of offbeat delight that I might have gladly watched for 3 extra hours. Seeing his pleasure {that a} producer has revived the misplaced artwork of writing profane messages on socks or proudly present his daughter his sparkly new sneakers is extra fascinating than something in his recording profession, and Gale and Olson correctly sit again and let the present Swamp Dogg take up the highlight.
Greater than any particular person track or album, the movie seeks to encapsulate the Swamp Dogg vibe. Effortlessly cool, thrilled to be alive, and mildly entertained by nearly every part, the person presents what seems to be the right blueprint to remain in 2025. We will’t all be Swamp Dogg, nevertheless it’s good to know the world nonetheless incorporates heroes price wanting as much as. I positive hope he enjoys his new pool.
Grade: B+
A Magnolia Photos launch, “Swamp Dogg Will get His Pool Painted” opens in choose theaters on Friday, Could 2.
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