Following Australian musician Courtney Barnett as she traverses the US and Europe, Anonymous Club documents an introverted performer who regularly toys with the idea of giving it all up. If you’ve not heard of Barnett before – and full disclosure, I hadn’t – you’ll find this a rare gem of filmmaking.
Revealing her innermost private thoughts into a dictaphone over a period of 3 years, her words identify a performer’s search for purpose and emergence as an artist finding her place in the world. In one vignette where Barnett is invited to on to German television, she finds the attention almost amusing.
So who is Courtney Barnett? Barnett first found critical acclaim with 2013’s The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, and broke into the mainstream in 2015 with her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Off the back of a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, Barnett performed the Ellen deGeneres show and live acts at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Governors Ball, Primavera, and Lollapalooza.
Anonymous Club is a well made documentary, but its subject is what makes it sparkle. Many parallels can be made to exceptional songwriters of old but that would be trying to constrain a talent that reaches far higher.
Anonymous Club opens nationally on Thursday 17 March at Palace Barracks cinemas. Check your local guides for screening times.
Barnett is touring Australia now with a Brisbane date set for 26 March 2022. Tickets on sale at Frontier.
About Anonymous Club
Length: 83 mins
Directed by Danny Cohen
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