Image: Roswell Films
Just about everyone can relate to the need for escape. Especially now, as we (hopefully) approach the end of a calamitous pandemic that has forced many of us to sit patiently in our homes, day in and day out, with no one but ourselves for company. Listening to someone talk about the longing to be somewhere,
anywhere else is a relatable driving force of
What Drives Us,
Dave Grohl’s new documentary. The film takes
a “Stars—they’re just like us!” approach, sitting down with famous musicians and letting them hold court on their early days as scrappy, hungry artists just trying to get enough gas in their tanks and food in their stomachs to make it to the next gig. Focusing on that youthful wanderlust gives the film a timelier hook than it would’ve otherwise had (and might explain why it’s being released now, just as there’s light at the end of the no-live-music tunnel), and helps energize a documentary that is otherwise just a bunch of talking heads enjoying the chance to reminisce, mostly (though not entirely) through a thick sheen of nostalgia.