SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2019 REVIEWS: A.J. Eaton’s DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME goes beyond the music to an old lion’s regrets of the friendships he destroyed

AJ Eaton’s documentary DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME is a look back through the eyes and thoughts and remembrances of the man himself REVIEW from Sundance Film Festival 2019

Former Byrd, former member of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, former heroin and cocaine addict (and well-experienced with every other drug imbibed by man on a quest for that elusive high), Crosby was a major player in the rock n’ roll scene for three decades with major historical signposts like Woodstock and Kent State along the way.

AJ Eaton DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME played Sundance 2019

Eaton leads us through the journey of his life via interviews between Crosby and an off-camera Cameron Crowe supplemented with archival footage, and interviews with some of Crosby’s contemporaries as well.

The documentary would be interesting and entertaining with the most basic and rudimentary approach simply because of who Crosby is, the lasting impact of the music he made, etc. But the film transcends all of that due to the fact that Crosby clearly believes he is “playing with house money.”

He and seemingly everyone else is amazed that he is still alive.

The sheer volume of the drugs he took, the time in jail, the self abuse – all of it should have done him in. And Crosby burned nearly every bridge connecting him with his friends as well. With remarkable frankness he accepts more than the lion’s share of the blame for that.

A.J. Eaton DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME explores the band’s chemistry

Paraphrasing, he says if it were one guy that had a problem with him then that’s a dispute between two men, but the fact that nearly every single bandmate (Roger McGuinn, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, etc.) won’t talk to him – it’s all on him.

He also takes himself to task for being a terrible person to have been in a romantic relationship with as well.

What’s most remarkable about his repeated admissions of being a walking, talking, singing toxic volcano ready to go off due to his anger issues and scorch the earth is the lack of desire to be absolved for the sins. So, we are given witness to a man facing the end with realization, regret, acceptance, and belief that he has but one thing to offer, and that he has always only had the one thing to offer –and that’s his music.

AJ Eaton DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME

AJ Eaton’s documentary DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME is a look back through the eyes and thoughts and remembrances of the man himself REVIEW from Sundance Film Festival 2019