Friday's movie: Patti Smith: Dream of Life. I enjoyed this but it is flawed. Director Steven Sebring spent 10 years working with Smith on the film but it still seems unfinished and, in a way, uncertain about just what kind of movie it wants to be and what kind of story it wants to tell. I agree with other reviews that complained about the lack of performance footage. Also, there's not much context given to a lot of the footage. It's often hard to know where (or when) scenes are happening. But there are some really nice moments: the scene with her parents at their home is sweet. I also liked the moments when she's painting and the bits where she's talking about Mapplethorpe, Burroughs, and her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith. A few too many scenes seemed contrived (playing guitar w/ Sam Shepherd, hanging out on the beach w/ Flea, visiting RImbaud's grave) and less like Patti Smith's life and more like "hey, let's do this; it'll look cool in the movie." At its best it has some of the loose, poetry-driven feel of Wings of Desire. But you probably need to already be a Patti Smith fan to really appreciate it. Here's a good review by Andrew O'Hehir.