LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL

Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill, Greewich Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 11, 2024

As the documentary Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill tells it, Judee Sill was born into a fairly ordinary life and died in obscurity. Somewhere in between that, she became somewhat famous as a singer/songwriter and might have been able to maintain that fame. Doing so, though, probably would have meant changing her musical interests, her personal philosophy, and her ambition to become the most famous musician in the history of popular music or just history in general.

Sill's life receives the treatment of a standard biography in this movie, although it's most fascinating in reading, looking at, and listening to her private journals and songwriting notebooks. They're filled with biographical details, drawings, and lists of rhyming words and stray phrases that will eventually be collected or discarded to form the poetry of her songs. Listening to live performances and the finished recordings of some of those songs here, one is struck by the complexity of the composition of both the music and the lyrics of Sill's work, and we're equally rendered confounded by the idea that anyone believed these songs would lead to a mainstream career in any form.

That's not a slight against Sill's talent or hard work, since both of those are apparent from the end products and the notebooks. It's more about the way directors Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom seem to create a bit of a false impression with the framing of Sill's story. As a singer, she definitely possessed a vocal quality that would have fit in with the folk singers of the 1960s and '70s, while being just distinct enough to stand out from the crowd. As a songwriter, her lyrics are overtly spiritual and deeply personal, which we know from the diaries and interviews with several people who knew her as friends, lovers, and colleagues.

There's just something about the music—with those esoteric words, as well as the layers of melody, counter-melody, harmony, and styles, which could infuse folk with a bit of rock, gospel, and even classical music—that also stands out from the crowd. It's why Sill has found some posthumous recognition from belated fans and modern musicians, but to be plain, it's most assuredly why she never gained that success, fame, or recognition during her life. The music was different from what most popular acts were doing, even in that variously experimental period, and hearing some of Sill's contemporaries be befuddled by how she never became famous is a bit confounding, too.

The movie also feels a bit evasive when it comes to Sill's personal life and the many, many demons she faced. To be clear, it gets right to the point about her troubles, as Sill apparently would from some archival audio of performances and interviews, as well as recollections of conversations and relationships she had with the interview subjects. She was devastated by the death of her supportive father when she was just a kid. Sill had a difficult relationship with her mother, who died when the singer was 19, and, from some insinuations we hear, was likely abused by her stepfather.

All of this led to drug addiction, becoming an armed robber and sex worker and forger, spending a stint in reform school, and Sill living out of a car with a few other people in Los Angeles. Even so, she had the talent, following almost two decades of basically teaching herself how to play a variety of instruments, and the determination to get some gigs. She wrote songs, sold one that became something of a hit, and became the first artist to sign on to a new record label started by David Geffen.

Everything was looking up for Sill, but that combination of ego and creative stubbornness, apparently, made her look beyond the limits of what fame and success in the music business could be for someone who made songs like the ones she did. The documentary doesn't even acknowledge that as a possibility, because it's stuck in the bubble of seeing Sill as a misunderstood and unrecognized genius.

That may be true (As evidence, we get lengthy clips from assorted songs and a good number of experts dissecting her compositions, which is appreciated), but it's also true that Sill's artistry simply wasn't for the sort of mass audience who would help fulfill her dream of stardom. Whether or not this is fair is irrelevant, but the filmmakers and interview subjects constantly nudge the idea that it's inherently unfair. At a certain point, it stops feeling like opinion and starts coming across as a denial of reality.

The perspective keeps Sill at a distance, because her ambitions and beliefs are held up on a kind of pedestal throughout, too. The documentary acknowledges the most obvious tragedies of its subject's life, but in between the lines, there's a good case to make that Sill's entire life was a tragic one. That's partly because of things beyond her control, but it's also because of whatever led her to have the mindset that could have become more famous than anyone else before her.

Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill may tell a sad and occasionally compelling story, while shining a light on a forgotten musician, but those deeper components of Sill's personality and behavior are missing here. Because the movie elevates its subject so much, it doesn't bother to even look for it.

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