The nearly four-decade long career of The Tragically Hip is told in an all-emcompassing docuseries in The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal. The Tragically Hip consisting of Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair were five alumni of KCVI high school in Kingston, Ontario. Signed to MCA records in the late-1980s, the band became to Canada what The Beatles were to the United Kingdom. The band remained together through many highs and lows, before Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal Synopsis
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is a four-part docuseries on the history of the band, directed by Mike Downie, the brother of the band’s late lead singer Gord Downie. The film features one of the final interviews with Gord Downie, as well as the surviving band members, joined by notable talking heads, such as fellow Kingston native Dan Akyroid, actor Will Arnet, Kids in the Hall‘s Bruce McCulloch, and even Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau. Each episode deals with a different era of the band, including their beginning, their 1990s peak, inner turmoil in the 2000s, and finally Gord Downie’s cancer diagnosis.
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
Running at a combined running time of more than four hours in length, The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is the definitive documentary about the history of the band. This documentary is fall from a fluff piece, digging into inner-turmoil that arose after Gord Downie moved from Kingston to Toronto, resulting in less creative collaboration within the band. However, it is the final part that truly makes The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal a must watch, as it recaps the final months of Gord Downie’s life and he established his final legacy fighting for the rights of the First Nations people.