"Heaven Adores You," a heartfelt portrayal of Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith during an interview circa late '90s.

As an impassioned Elliott Smith enthusiast of the past five years, attending the Portland premiere of Nickolas Rossi’s bewitching portrayal of one of the best singer/songwriters of our time, aptly pegged, “Heaven AdoresYou,” was a must.

Rossi, who was in attendance at the Oct. 10 sold-out screening, which kicked off the 32^nd edition of the Reel Music Festival at the Whitsell Auditorium of the Portland Art Museum, told the crowd of at least 100 people that the film was a "love letter" to the metropolis and to the man who rose from local fame to a household name at the dawn of the alt-rock era of the mid-1990s. And that’s exactly what it is. Because when I left the screening, I was filled with more love for Smith than I had ever imagined.

During a post-screening Q&A, Rossi said the finished product exceeded his expectations of when he first started shooting the film. After viewing it, the film exceeded mine as well. Producer Kevin Moyer told Willamette Week that his goal was for fans to walk away with a greater understanding of who Smith was as a person. As a fan who had always wanted to feel close to him and know him, this film was what I needed to satiate that yearning for him.
Going into the film, I was admittedly very anxious. I thought I would leave the screening feeling one of two things: 1.) the void in my heart from Smith’s absence would be bandaged and I would be left with a sense of acceptance of his death. Or, 2.) I’d leave with it stretched and missing him even more. To my pleasant surprise, I walked away with a happy heart overflowing with even more love for Elliott Smith as I had imagined, because for the first time since discovering his music in 2009, I felt close to him.

Before the film started at 7 p.m. that evening, a co-ed cello ensemble took to the stage, which included Smith’s best friend and Heatmiser cofounder Neil Gust. The group played dulcet instrumentals of Smith’s songs spanning his nine-year solo career from his six studio albums, including “Needle in the Hay” and “Between the Bars.” The evening was a real celebration of Smith’s life two weeks before it would be 11 years since losing him.

Neil Gust, second left, plays Smith's song with a cello ensemble

There’s only so many Elliott Smith photos to marvel at in books or on the Internet and dozens of unreleased material on YouTube to listen to, so watching the film intimately portray rare concert footage and cherubic pictures of Smith as a baby and a young boy with his beautiful blonde locks circa late ‘70s, early ‘80s was a real treat. During his upbringing in Duncanville in Dallas, Texas, we see a musically inclined boy at the family piano who delves more into music-making when he moves to Portland in his adolescence and attends Lincoln High School where he met his future band mate, Tony Lash, and was then known as Steve, his birth name. (A plaque hangs on the wall in the present day quoting his “Waltz No. 2 (XO)” lyric: “I’m never going to know you now, but I’m going to love you anyhow.”) At this time in his life, we see Smith as a soft-spoken introvert who played in his high school band and eventually helped form alt-rock quartet Heatmiser before releasing a demo of solo material to Cavity Search, which would wind up on his 1994 indie-folk debut, Roman Candle. Insight into the person Smith was, as well as his troubled side stemming from reported childhood abuse is portrayed in candid interviews with Lash, longtime friend and owner of Jackpot! Recording Studio Larry Crane, Smith’s sister, Ashley Welch, his manager Margaret Mittleman, and Joanna Bolme, former partner and collaborator.

While the film provides some inkling into Smith’s depression, Rossi gracefully strays from centering the focus on it. Instead, he places it on the person Smith was: a humble man with an infectious sense of humor who loved music. Smith once said that songwriting reveals what it is to be a person, which was what Rossi did here with this film. Despite Smith’s rise to fame with his Academy Award nomination for “Miss Misery,” which landed along with other jams from Roman Candle in “Good Will Hunting,” stardom took a backseat to staying true to who he was.

What I took away from the film as a fan was that Smith was just a man with his guitar who took the trials of his life and turned them into breathtaking melodies and spine-tingling verse. Despite getting emotional towards the end of the film as it chronicled his relocation from Portland to New York and Los Angeles and into the making of what would be his last effort, From a Basement on the Hill and his death, my tears of sadness turned to that of joy when the film ended with Smith's song, “Happiness.” In this tune off Figure 8 he sings: "What I used to be will pass away and then you’ll see/ That all I want now is happiness for you and me.” There was a time in my life when I wished to let go of some trying time and I thought of that song. To hear the film end with that song was apropos, as was the title of the film which all made sense at that moment.

I think viewers will walk away feeling a strong sense of nostalgia, but closer to the man they never knew and grateful for everything he gave to the world. “Heaven Adores You” is further validation that his legacy lives on in his music and a celebration of Elliott Smith till the end.