Taking Woodstock

Loosely based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, whose family owned a ramshackle motel at the rim of the Woodstock music festival, Taking Woodstock trips nostalgically into the muddy romp that Woodstock becamefor free love before the bill arrived and for the fleeting glimpse of oneness that a psychedelic experience among a half-million friendly faces can afford. Though it’s a rare foray into comedy for Ang Lee, as always, the director nails the look of his setting, especially the slightly hangdog appearance of everyday middle-class America and the murky, black-and-white televised backdrop of Vietnam casualties and the moon landing.