Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury

Directed by Matt Hinton, Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury follows the members of Georgia-based alt-rock band Luxury as they confront a wide variety of roadblocks and obstacles – with, especially, a life-threatening car crash forcing the men to reevaluate their future within the fledgling group. It’s compelling subject matter that is, by and large, employed to intriguing and sporadically fascinating effect by Hinton, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the movie benefits substantially from an opening half hour that provides plenty of context and backstory for Luxury neophytes – with the instantly watchable atmosphere heightened and perpetuated by the affable nature of the band’s core members. (Frontman Lee Bozeman comes off as an especially compelling and downright fascinating figure, to be sure.) The relatively lighthearted bent of the film’s first act paves the way for an unexpectedly engrossing midsection focused almost entirely on the aforementioned car crash and its impact on the band members, with Hinton’s use of in-person interviews and home-video footage certainly going a long way towards increasing the effect and impact of this stretch. And although the picture peters out to a slight degree as it comes to a close, with the interesting yet repetitive emphasis on the religious exploits of certain figures, Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury nevertheless comes off as an eye-opening and periodically spellbinding documentary that bodes well for Hinton’s future endeavors behind the camera.

*** out of ****