Heeeere's Johnny... the "Pop Star"

No, he’s not changing coaches again.

But Johnny Weir is in the news anyway—or more accurately, his bio/documentary is.

Pop Star on Ice made its world premiere over the weekend at the 35th annual Seattle International Film Festival, which apparently means the search is on for more festival appearances… and, the race is on to post reviews about the film. I don’t have the intense interest in Weir to read more than, oh, one of them, but here is the review I found for you. An excerpt:

Pop Star On Ice goes where cameras have not gone before and offers us a glimpse into the sometimes-frenetic, sometimes-introspective world that has given us one of the most controversial sports figures in the world. It is fascinating to hear Weir talk about his goals of Olympic gold and World Championships and then watch him systematically undermine his own goals with a lack of focus and discipline, all the while aware of what he’s doing and doing it with a smile. He is at the same time entertaining, frustrating, fun and sympathetic, and at the end of the film you understand that it’s all of those qualities that make him so special.

What interests me about this film is the timing of it. The odd thing about doing documentaries with a subject like Weir is that they (the subject) are a work in progress… not someone who has been dead for 10 years, or even retired. And with an Olympic athlete, there would seem to be a pretty clear-cut way to end Weir’s filmed life-on-ice story. So why complete and release the documentary a full year ahead of when it might make more sense to do so?

From reading an article about it over at IceNetwork.com, first-time feature filmmakers David Barba and James Pellerito were very willing to answer questions about Pop Star in Seattle… maybe this question was already addressed?

Let me know if you have the answer. It could be as simple as them not wanting to have a “logical” ending to the film; to leave it more open-ended and filled with possibility. Or, maybe they just wanted to get it done already.

It looks like this has been out for a while, but since it’s on You Tube, I’ll go ahead and make the Pop Star trailer the Clip of the Day . Watch the whole thing and you’ll hear a custom-made JohnnyRap that has passages eerily familiar to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”.