Let's Get Lost

Bruce Weber's documentary looks at the life of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. It juxtaposes footage from his early life with interviews with him and his family in his last years. Baker's life was packed with incident, including three marriages, four children, heroin use, imprisonment in Italy, and an impressive body of music.

It is slowly paced, revealing facets of Baker's personality throughout the film. There is no clear narrative to the contemporary part of the documentary, which relies on showing rather than telling. It does make it hard to get into the film at first, and leaves it feelng a little unsatisfying in places, but it's ultimately rewarding, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

Let's Get Lost was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 1988, losing out to Hotel Terminus, and the quality certainly shines out. However, the best documentaries tend to have a wider appeal for people not immediately familiar with the subject. Let's Get Lost isn't only for Chet Baker fans, but it doesn't make much of an effort to reach out to the wider sphere.

Fans will be fascinated.