Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall Is a Brilliant Portrait of an Artist Frozen in Time: Review

“Cameron Winter, Dead at 23,” a title card reads at the pre-encore conclusion of Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall, the new concert film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Beyond being a joke, it’s a reminder that the man we just watched bare his soul was only 23 years old at the time of filming.

To see someone so young command the stage at such an old, famous venue — one synonymous with both artistic greatness and the tradition of classical music — is pretty astounding. Winter’s boyish mannerisms, his slump over the piano, his awkwardness in front of crowds and sarcastic demeanor are often completely at odds with the maturity of his songwriting voice. When he breaks the mold of his own songs, like the twinkling piano detour on “The Rolling Stones” or the slurred, surreal unloading of words on “Nina + Field of Cops,” it’s like we’re being hoisted up for air after being deep underwater.

Find Geese Tickets Here

This is an aspect of Winter’s music that Paul Thomas Anderson appears to know well. Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall (which will be touring this fall — check out the dates/locations below) is comprised of a series of long, languid close-up takes of the singer-songwriter performing, revealing as much of Winter’s raw artistry as possible. But then throughout every song, Anderson and editor Andy Jurgensen make a choice that jolts us out of the stillness and brings us back into the real world.

That includes not one, but two grand entrances onto the stage, where stagehands physically open the door for the camera, leading to a long, shockingly vulnerable zoom while Winter performs. There’s also a great moment at the beginning of “Love Takes Miles” where a camera operator walks plainly down the aisle of the hall to the foot of the stage, shakiness and all; it’s a total shift from the prior song’s cinematography, which held a taut focus on Winter from just across the hood of the piano. Soon, though, we’re back in a close-up watching Winter race through one of his best songs to date, and that rich hypnosis sets in once again.

Anderson and Jurgensen also pick and choose very specific moments to show the crowd receiving Winter. Towards the end, there’s a long shot that lingers on a line of audience members watching intently: Millennial-aged men and women frozen in stillness, save for a couple of unconscious gestures, taking in Winter’s solemn hymns in peace.

Then there’s a lovely moment of brightness (literally) in “$0” when Winter announces “God is real/ God is real/ I’m not kidding, God is actually real,” and the house lights turn on; Anderson depicts the moment from the back of the house, panning across a sea of attendees finally illuminated before turning back to Winter’s perspective onstage.

Dozens of times throughout Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall, Anderson lets a moment sit long and thoughtfully before casually lifting the veil, including shots that remain still for two minutes until they casually drift downwards to reveal the “Steinway and Sons” logo on Winter’s piano. Stillness interrupted seemed to be a motif of the night itself, where Winter’s long arrangements were received with patient attentiveness and intercut with rapturous applause. But Winter didn’t face the crowd during the show, so Anderson primarily uses Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall as a chance to show fans what he really looks like when performing such personal, heartfelt songs.

Winter has a massive voice, a baritone specifically built for echoey concert halls like Carnegie. But what’s fascinating about seeing so many close-up shots of him singing is that he actually doesn’t open his mouth a whole lot. No, even in his early 20s, this man is the master of a soft palate lift; his belts arrive so naturally that you can tell Winter is making enough space for them using the muscles in the back of his mouth instead of the front.

It’s a small detail, but it feels really integral to his performance style. Opera and musical theater singers are trained to have an instrument so open and accessible that the process of breath from the diaphragm, vibration in the larynx, and amplification from the roof of their open mouth happens like water streaming from a faucet. Winter can seemingly mimic this process too, though his approach is raw enough to leave certain imperfections in; those little cracks and rasps and roars are what humanize Winter and give us something real to grasp onto, especially when he repeats the same refrain over and over again like on “Try As I May” or “Cancer of the Skull.” The way his voice starts to subtly decay the fifth or sixth time he sings the same words gives them a different meaning. Winter’s face remains stoic. It’s his voice that carries the breadth of emotion.

Beyond commemorating the occasion of Winter becoming one of the youngest artists to headline Carnegie Hall, the concert film also serves as a stark preservation of select songs from his catalog. Unlike concert films that have behind-the-music interviews or dazzle with depictions of ambitious production and crowd catharsis, Anderson and Winter are using this one almost as a still life — a patient, unblinking portrait of an artist stripped of spectacle and allowing the music to speak for itself.

Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall doesn’t need bells and whistles to make its case, because Winter’s music is engrossing enough on its own. In reality, Winter may have lived to see 24, but the film captures him exactly as that title card joked — frozen at 23, before anything about him had the chance to change.

Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall Theatrical Tour Dates:

11/20 — New York, NY @ Village East by Angelika, BAM Rose Cinemas
11/20 — Los Angeles, CA @ Aero Theater
11/23 — Los Angeles, CA @ Los Feliz 3 Theatre
11/27 — Washington, DC @ AFI Silver Theater
12/02 — San Francisco, CA @ Castro Theater
12/04 — Chicago, IL @ Music Box Theater
12/05 — Atlanta, GA @ Plaza Theater
12/05 — Dallas, TX @ Texas Theater
12/08 — Denton, TX @ Fine Arts Theatre
12/08 — Boston, MA @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
12/10 — Santa Ana, CA @ Frida Cinema
12/11 — Nashville, TN @ Belcourt Theatre
12/14 — Milwaukee, WI @ Oriental Theatre
12/17 — Houston, TX @ Museum of Fine Arts
12/19 — Louisville, KY @ Speed Art Museum
12/30 — Austin, TX @ Austin Film Society
01/01 — Omaha, NE @ Dundee Theatre
01/06 — Tucson, AZ @ Loft Cinema
01/15 — Ann Arbor, MI @ State Theatre
01/18 — Portland, OR @ Hollywood Theatre