The Portrait of Billy Joe

Almost entirely comprised of day-in-the-life footage that couldn't possibly be of interest to anyone other than hardcore Billy Joe Shaver fans, Luciana Pedraza's raw-footage documentary follows the craggy, almost-famous West Texan folk singer and songwriter for a week or so, cataloging nearly everything he does. He shaves in the morning, talking to the camera ("My mama said I look awfully mean with a mustache"), sings his storytelling country blues in a hole-in-the-wall saloon, and sits in a rocking chair chin-wagging with unidentified family members about an uncle who died ages ago of tuberculosis. He's interviewed in the worn-down kitchen of his modest Waco home, and talks about his horrible father who beat his pregnant mother, his musician son who died of a drug overdose in 2000, and his late, cheatin' wife (insert 1970s photo album montage here) and the guy he caught with her and almost shot. At one point, he even goes to the hospital for a blood-cleansing treatment (although we're never told what ails him). But the only insights offered into his talent and career are quotes from Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson about what a great songwriter Shaver is--not actual interview clips, just words printed on the screen. Billy Joe may have written for these two and Elvis, but if he really is a musical genius, then this Portrait doesn't begin to do him justice. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)