Educational Media Reviews Online

Come Worry With Us! explores the implications of balancing motherhood and a career in the creative arts. The film adeptly follows musicians Jessica Moss and Efrim Menuck as they decide how to care for their young son, Ezra Steamtrain Moss Menuck, while maintaining active careers as members of the Montreal-based band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (SMZ), a Canadian, post-rock band on Constellation, an independent record label. While Ezra is an infant, most of the quotidian parental responsibilities fall on Moss, while Menuck tours to support the family. As Ezra grows into a toddler, Moss and Menuck decide to bring him along on tour with SMZ so that Moss can return to performing as a violinist. The film primarily documents this tour as Moss, Menuck, and all the members of SMZ cope with non-stop bus travel with a small child, and Moss faces the competing priorities of motherhood and career. Come Worry With Us! provides a gritty, in-depth depiction of life on the margins and of the unconventional lives of uncompromising artists.

The tension between economic realities and parenting is a recurring theme throughout the film. The members of Thee Silver Mount Zion prefer to make a living via their art and maintain their freedom of expression without being tied to the music industry. Musicians Sophie Trudeau, Thierry Amar, and Dave Payant, all band members of SMZ, agree to take Ezra with them on tour and equally share the cost of his nanny and the necessary large tour bus to accommodate him. While their reliance of self-employment and self-promotion is admirable, Moss and Menuck do appear to have a support net to catch them if they fall, including the Canadian health care system and grants for musicians. Menuck also just happens to be a founding member of the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. While Moss and Menuck’s dilemma is illustrative of the struggling artists’ reality, most musicians, especially those who are parents, do not have a highly popular group to fall back on to support their living expenses and must settle for the dreaded day job that Moss and Menuck only discuss as a last resort. Tellingly, it is Moss who will likely be expected to do this type of work because she will be the one managing childcare responsibilities.

Moss interviews several other women artists throughout the film to discuss their perspectives on motherhood and pursuing a career in music. At one point, she revealingly asks “Why is it that there are so few women that are in their mid-thirties and beyond in bands?” These interviews are wonderful exploration of women’s lives and choices beyond the main narrative, and cleverly document a broader slice of women’s experiences as artists. Come Worry With Us! reminds viewers that unequal gender roles and responsibilities continue to persist in present-day society even with open-minded and engaged fathers. Mothers must often still choose between parenthood and career, and accept the consequences, both emotional and economic, that such a problematic choice entails.

Overall, this film interweaves current issues of labor, the music industry, gender roles, politics, parenthood, and family life into an appealing storyline. For those interested more in the musical aspects of the film, there is excellent footage of a touring band and great performance documentation. Viewers will also come away with a better understanding of SMZ’s aesthetic, ethics, and close personal relationships. Come Worry With Us! is recommended for music libraries at academic institutions with subject interest in popular music and would make an excellent addition to women’s and gender studies film collections.