Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Michael Hutchence was flying high as the lead singer of the legendary rock band INXS until his untimely death in 1997. Richard Lowenstein’s documentary examines Hutchence’s deeply felt life through his many loves and demons.
Mystify is a sensitively crafted music documentary that benefits enormously from director Richard Lowenstein's personal friendship with Hutchence, granting access to rare home footage and intimate archive material rarely seen elsewhere. The film constructs its portrait almost entirely through visual and archival evidence rather than talking-head interviews, giving it a distinctive, elegiac texture. The ending — tracing Hutchence's psychological unraveling following a brain injury and the media-fueled collapse — lands with genuine emotional weight. However, as a music documentary it operates within established conventions, and the overall narrative arc follows a recognizable rise-and-fall trajectory. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense; interview subjects are candid but unremarkable. Cinematography of the archival and home-video material is handled with care but limited by its source. A respectful, above-average entry in the genre without quite transcending it.