beyondbelief

Avati seized on the life story of Bix Beiderbecke and filtered it through his unique interpretation and then mangled facts to serve this fictional view. The movie is interesting in as much as it is a rare insight into this side of the roaring twenties and the fascinating story of Bix Beiderbecke's meteoric rise and fall. But despite being plainly shown the fundamental inaccuracies in the script, Avati chose to inject wholly fictional scenes. These were not merely the normal adjustments to make the movie move smoothly and advance the plot, but fundamental distortions of the record. Thus, it is sad that this movie, which had the potential to really stand as the definitive work on Bix Beiderbecke, whose true life has more than enough elements to make a great movie, instead stands as yet another distorted vision.