Patti Smith Dream of Life

Some people said this movie would only be finished when the director or its subject died. But here it finally is, and they’re both still alive: at the centre, the quirky poet, musician, artist and family woman Patti Smith. Twelve years in the making, Sebring’s film eschews most conventional biographical detail for a portrait instead through seemingly casual scenes of Smith in middle age, widowed, with children growing, returning to music and activism, contrasted with the young Patti Smith who was punk before punk had been invented.