Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story

The kind of electric, spirit-lifting music documentary that will make you want to reinvent your life so that you can live your entire existence in the heart of Louisiana.

The festival is an institution that had to survive, that had to come roaring back, and "Jazz Fest" makes the case for its next 50 years going forward.

The energy that the film puts out is vital and full of sap.

The history and commentary are fine, but the musical numbers are sensational.

A rollicking, heartfelt shout-out to (and glorified tourism ad for) a cherished fairground blowout that has long buoyed a routinely troubled city.

The movie is conscientiously attentive to the festival’s homegrown eclecticism.

There’s much to enjoy, provided you don’t mind your tunes and grub ladled in propaganda.

A noble presumption underlies this somewhat scattered and perhaps over-reaching film: The world needs a place where musical approaches mix, mingle, and inform one another.

You smell and taste Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story

Deftly summoning the myriad flavors and cultures one gets when walking the Fair Grounds during those two peerless springtime weekends, “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” is the definitive Jazz Fest documentary we’ve been waiting for.