The Last Days Of Left Eye (Anchor Bay DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Main Program: B-

 

 

It is a nightmare when anyone dies young, but when it is a talented, distinct voice in any of the arts, the pain and loss carries more resonance and the loss of Left Eye Lopez of the hit group TLC is one of the most recent examples.  The Last Days Of Left Eye is a documentary that originally premiered on the VH-1 Network and in all the ironies, features footage of a long video Lopez was making about herself and the vacation when she died.  A camera was even chillingly on when she lost control of her vehicle for the last time.

 

Though not exploitive, the makers try too hard to integrate her footage with every piece of music, stills and stock footage they can, sometimes overproducing this at the expense of negating the very interesting, personal and bold footage Lopez was shooting of herself.  That alone is more than sufficient and they should have just shown that in the majority or even offered that as a separate program.  Still, her story is amazing and the intended tribute is still respectful and revealing enough.  I just wanted more of her semi-unplugged.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is soft and mixed form the variety of footage cut together, including some old NTSC and the final footage is slightly soft.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has some good moments, but can be monophonic in more than a few spots, with music being the sonic highlight.  Some clips are down a few more generations than they should be.  Extras include deleted scenes and a DVD-ROM accessible unreleased solo song “Let’s Just Do It” that could have been a hit single if marketed correctly.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo