Lee begins quietly. We see the peaceful looking countryside and farm land that stand in contrast to what happens as the story builds and a half million people show up with perhaps as many more trying to get there but thwarted by huge traffic jams. The focus is on a run down mom and pop motel resort run by Jake and Sonia Teichberg, given unusual performances by Brits Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton, in real life far removed from the Catskills types they play. Demetri Martin is their son Elliot, who is stuck with helping to run the place.

When the town of Wallkill, N.Y. rejects the idea of a music and arts festival, Elliot contacts the producer and offers his family’s motel as a base, and helps obtain the use of a 600-acre dairy farm from neighbor Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy). They have no clue of the extent of the onslaught to come. The townspeople don’t either, but they sense enough to oppose what they fear will be an intrusion. However, there is also the potential for locals making money as a result of the influx.

Martin is excellent as Elliot, who has to come to terms with his being gay and for whom the demands of the concert and congregation of free spirited youth will become a learning experience. What would the film be without an acid trip? Elliot is intrigued by a hippie couple who invite him into their makeshift abode to get high, and Lee gives the sequence a visual high.

Liev Schreiber does some scene stealing as Vilma, a beefy, ex-Marine cross dresser who is hired as a guard. The actor is hilarious with his sexual lines and the feigned femininity that contrasts with his gruff voice. His presence is an eye-opener for Elliot, as well as for Elliot’s folks.