I wouldn't try to rank Stephin Merritt's importance among American songwriters, but I will say that none of the great ones have seemed to do it so aloofly as he. In the film Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields (opening this week at Film Forum), we get a long look at the man behind the detachment (if not the man behind that man). Strange Powers, a documentary 11 years in the making, lays out Merritt's early years, his songwriting creed, his small notorieties and the platonic love he shares with his closest cohort.
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