Mystify: Michael Hutchence

My only period in time when i was into INXS was pretty much the same as most people and that was when the KICK album was released. A rare album where every song was great and could have been a hit. I didn't know much about Michael Hutchence himself other than he's girlfriends were Kylie Minogue and Paula Yates and the rumours of how he died. This is a complimentary documentary that documents his life and talks to the people who knew him and loved him. He came across as a really nice guy who was hounded by the press which ultimately killed him and it's really sad to see what the scummy British tabloid press did. It's what they have always done and still do. Thankfully the horrible rumours of how he died , spread by the gutter press were not gone into in this film . I was totally into this documentary . It had me hooked from the start and even if you were not an INXS fan i recommend you watch this.

As a good friend of the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, filmmaker Richard Lowenstein gets amazing, unprecedented access to home movies, personal recordings of Hutchence's thoughts when he was alive, and interviews with close friends and family of Hutchence. The result is a wonderful and fitting tribute to a rock star whose music and charisma had a huge impact on his generation. People such as lover Kylie Minogue and manager Martha Troup speak in depth about what Hutchence was really like, and what drove him. The consensus is that he was an artist at heart - shy as a boy but a showman as an adult, who write his own lyrics and melodies and wanted to be famous, but who like so many before him, suffered the downsides of fame. Hutchence loved his parents, but the documentary shows how they had deep flaws, for which he forgave them eventually. The part I don't quite understand is about Hutchence's relationship with Paula Yates, and the circumstances that led to Hutchence's death in a Sydney hotel. There were some very messy circumstances, and I'm not sure this doco provides many insights, aside from suggesting that Hutchence was down because he agonised over the prospect of breaking up Yates and Bob Geldof, and thereby hurting their three daughters, which may have reminded Hutchence of the pain of his own parents' split. I don't know about that. But maybe we'll never know, because Yates and Hutchence are no longer with us. Hutchence and Yates were, as someone points out, bad influences on one another. It's so sad, in any case, that Hutchence had such a terrible fall from his golden early years.

A film that doesn't quite provide the insight into its subject that it would like to, and one which has little use for the music other than as a soundtrack. Despite all the interviews with - it feels like - just about everybody around him, the real depths of his personality and his art seem frustratingly out of reach.

It's been over 22 years since Michael Hutchence of INXS took his life. This 2019 documentary was worth that wait. Beautifully made. The team behind this doc has included so much stunning footage shot by Michael himself, and by those around him, as well as file footage of the time. They've compiled a work of art and a realistic portrait of Hutchence's life. There is so much we learn in this about his final few dramatic and tumultuous years. There are contemporary interviews included, but no video / talking heads of them speaking now. This was the right choice by the filmmakers. It's simply contextual narration over the footage of the time. It was painstakingly edited/produced, and one of the best documents on a musical personality I've seen in decades. Highly recommend.