An overview without a point of view, a sketch without perspective, Robert Drew's film works only as an introduction to the jazz great. Placing equal weight on Ellington's all-night composing sessions and his morning meals, the filmmaker reverently follows a 68-year-old genius still going out night after night, as the narrator notes, to play ''the same old standards...again and again.'' But how does that feel? We won't find out here: Drew is less interested in exploring an artist than in enshrining a legend.
EW's GRADE
C+Details Release Date: May 28, 2002; Movie Rated: Unrated; Genres: Documentary, Musical
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