Singer/songwriter
Damon Gough (aka
Badly Drawn Boy) and director
Paul Weitz captured lightning in a bottle in 2002 with the award-winning film
About a Boy. Fueled by
Gough's skewed yet emotional pop songs, it made
Badly Drawn Boy a critical darling.
Being Flynn, an adaptation of author
Nick Flynn's memoirs Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, finds the pair reuniting in 2012 for a second go-round, and the results are pretty much the same. Once again,
Gough's simple melodies and soulful delivery provide an emotional core from which the film draws to help illuminate its more poignant moments. Peppered throughout with impressionistic piano and string-laden instrumentals that feel like faded postcards from the '70s, it works surprisingly well as a stand-alone record, requiring little in the way of plot knowledge to be enjoyed as is. Less quirky than
About a Boy, but maintaining an undercurrent of whimsy that helps cut through the at times overly earnest, sunset indie folk of songs like "Let It Rain" and "I'll Keep the Things You Throw Away,"
Being Flynn exudes warmth like a favorite old coat, even if it smells a little funky.