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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival)

Directed/Written by: Douglas Arrowsmith
Featuring: Ron Sexsmith, Bob Rock, Rob Bowman, Daniel Lanois, Elvis Costello, Kiefer Sutherland and Feist

Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, k.d. lang, Feist and others have covered Ron Sexsmith’s songs. But like Anvil (whose “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” documentary was a hit on the circuit in 2010), Sexsmith has found that being Canadian is not always the best thing for manifesting a legacy career in music.

Just as Anvil seems to always place second to others on the bill, and fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen, though a famed poet, seems to always be runner-up to Bob Dylan, Sexsmith grafts a career from his pained aptitude for songwriting and has a sort of alphabetical relationship with the fame and the fortune it brings: The Sex Pistols would be listed near Sexsmith in any music compendium, just as the director of this documentary, Douglas Arrowsmith — well, let’s just say that he isn’t the one hosting “American Idol.”

The film drops us into October 2009 as Sexsmith enters a Los Angeles studio with famed Metallica producer Bob Rock. Depressed by years of suppressed play, Sexsmith just wants his songs on the radio. He’s an incredible songwriter with a voice that’s less unique than others but, properly produced, could definitely be suitably heralded in his time. If anyone wondered what an album producer does, this movie confirms the job’s value. Rock adds sizable oomph to Sexsmith’s subtleties, ensuring his music gets heard and instilling in the performer a confidence that doesn’t come naturally to the troubadour.

“Love Shines” cuts between Sexsmith recounting his personal story — a childhood spent daydreaming and staring out a window — and his time in the studio and performances in a club, at Massey Hall and on a bill at the Apollo with Elvis Costello, who claims in the film that it’s an “embarrassment to everyone else that [Sexsmith is] underappreciated” while comparing him to Paul McCartney.

Because of the music, its soothing softness stirring us, “Love Shines” beckons us too into the Sexsmith fold, serving as a perfect introduction to the simple beauty his tunes possess. As Sexsmith himself sings, “In every nowhere town, there are somewhere dreams.” There’s hope, after all, that Sexsmith’s dreams might become a reality. Perhaps this film will help, a little.

Photo courtesy South by Southwest