Live From SXSW's Screening Room

JON E. EDWARDS IS IN LOVE

Documentary Feature Competition

Jon E. Edwards is a mediocre singer, a so-so dancer, and an iffy lyricist, but he's in possession of a smooth postmodern wit, a wad of charisma, and some damn well-cut suits. Jon E. Edwards rates himself the world's "No. 3 soul man" and rocks with a Groove Holmes vibe, but he compares himself to Iggy Pop and Johnny Rotten. Jon E. Edwards puts his NYC soul-rocker career on hold to attend to his ailing mom in L.A., works as a P.A. on a television series, and misplaces the occasional joint in his Sentra; he threatens to "beat the ass" of O-Town and instructs a producer to make him sound like he's "from space a little," à la Alladin Sane-era Bowie. Jon E. Edwards writes many anthems with his name in the title; "Jon E. Edwards Is in Love" is, in theory, the last of those songs. Jon E. Edwards is not crazy or wacky or even really deluded. Jon E. Edwards is, in fact, a passionate and strangely affecting figure; when a friend characterizes him as "pure fiction come to life," we're thinking that's some wicked-good fiction. Add to that Jon E. Edwards Is in Love's artful cinematography (black-and-white DV that looks like a biography of Chet Baker or something), his complicated affection for his family, and Edwards' many, many bons mots, and you've got something much more than your standard obsessive-weirdo doc: a compelling and funny portrait of star power, one that might leave you convinced that Jon E. Edwards really is the world's No. 3 soul rocker. (Jon E. Edwards Is in Love won the Special Jury Award for Documentary.) (CC, 3/14, 4:15pm)