The band Deer Tick in Straight into a Storm (Abramorama)

Deer Tick is a pretty solid rock band in the tradition of the Replacements and Old 97’s. Lead singer and main songwriter John McCauley combines the high lonesome wail of Hank Williams with the gritty growl of Kurt Cobain, set to the high-energy bar band punk played expertly by his cohorts. His songs are usually about drinking too much, fucking up, and crawling toward redemption, but they never let you forget that all these future and past regrets started out as loads of fun. McCauley has also managed to hold a band together for 10 years. And this is essentially what Straight into a Storm is, a celebration of a decade of the band’s music and a love letter to the man who made it.

If you are a fan of Deer Tick, this film will be a godsend. If you are only curious about the band, the documentary may leave you wanting. For even though the music is expertly crafted and loads of fun, McCauley, as a subject, is taciturn at the best of times. He’s polite and happily tells you about the history of the band and the city that he made it in and is clearly deeply connected to (Providence), but he’s not going to let you in. Director William Miller seemingly doesn’t bother to try. No real hard questions are asked of McCauley or his bandmates. There is a reference of a period where the singer was starting to get out of control, but that gets glossed over and everything is back on track pretty quickly. Essentially, the film is a puff piece about a potentially compelling guy.

Miller includes footage of around three time periods in the evolution of the band and swaps between them to tell a fairly linear story about the creation of Deer Tick, spliced with the band’s reminiscences and the occasional concert. There’s no fancy footwork here, and Miller stays on point with a singular message: John McCauley is a great songwriter and bandleader who deserves your attention. Which may be so, but Straight into a Storm is a film that frankly doesn’t.