Keith Richards: Under the Influence

The documentary is not about Keith Richards's career. It is about what he listened to. Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Gregory Isaacs, country, blues and reggae, worked through record by record to show what each of them did to his playing. Morgan Neville directs. Two years earlier he had won the documentary Oscar for 20 Feet from Stardom, where he did the same thing: look past the person at the front of the stage to find where the sound actually came from. The film was released alongside Richards's solo album Crosseyed Heart and went straight to Netflix. Parts of it happen inside those sessions, with Richards playing, stopping and explaining. Its best material is technical: five string open G tuning, the gapped, unhurried approach to rhythm guitar in the Rolling Stones, and where Richards took it from. That conversation rarely happens this clearly anywhere else. The visit to the old Chess Records building in Chicago is the calmest and most open passage in the film. Who it is for: guitar players, anyone tracing the roots of blues and rock, and Rolling Stones listeners. Who it is not for: viewers wanting the life story or the band politics. The film barely touches either.