DEVO ***1/2

Veteran documentarian Chris Smith ( American Movie , Tiger King ) offers a lively 50-years-on portrait of the veteran New Wave/punk/art band that offers not just a career retrospective, but a sense of how frustrating it can be for an artist to have a message that almost nobody seems to understand. From the initial meeting of founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale as Kent State University students in 1970, Smith spins the tale of angry Vietnam-era activists keen to spread a satirical message about human “de-evolution” in a chaotic time, and whose artistic endeavors to spread that message almost accidentally culminate in the formation of a band. Not surprisingly, there are tales of clashes with record company executives who don’t entirely “get” them, and a rise-and-fall

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