BEFORE: This film is from the same director as "Once", John Carney, and that's the sort of thing that I really should pay more attention to. Why I don't list the director of each film I watch, I really don't know. Some directors like to hire the same actors over and over, and that can only help me. Tonight Marcella Plunkett, who played the ex-girlfriend in "Once", seen only in home movie footage, carries over and appears again.
Here's the schedule for tomorrow, February 24, on TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", and they're running the last of the films nominated for Best Actor:
6:45 am "The Story of Louis Pasteur" (1936) - Paul Muni, winner
8:15 am "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) - Charles Laughton, winner
10:00 am "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940) - Raymond Massey
12:00 pm "Lust for Life" (1956) - Kirk Douglas
2:15 pm "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955) - Spencer Tracy
4:00 pm "The Search" (1948) - Montgomery Clift
6:00 pm "My Favorite Year" (1982) - Peter O'Toole
8:00 pm "Cat Ballou" (1965) - Lee Marvin, winner
10:00 pm "Harry and Tonto" (1974) - Art Carney, winner
12:15 am "There Will Be Blood" (2007) - Daniel Day-Lewis, winner
3:15 am "Network" (1976) - Peter Finch, winner
I can say for sure that I've seen 6 out of these 11: "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", "Lust for Life", "My Favorite Year", "Cat Ballou", "There Will Be Blood" and "Network". Plus I'm going to watch "The Private Life of Henry VIII" in March for sure, so another 7 out of 11 brings my total up to 96 seen out of 268. Up to 35.8%
THE PLOT: A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes.
AFTER: Oh, I liked this one SO much better than I did "Once". Maybe that's because I grew up during the 1980's, and I still remember when MTV first started airing music videos, and then the whole world changed. Suddenly all musicians were also actors, bands like Duran Duran, The Police and Men at Work were everywhere - all the girls wanted to date them, all the guys wanted to BE them, and I think a few people wanted to do both. But what could you do if you were 13 or 14 years old, stuck in school for most of the day, while people were out there somewhere conducting photo shoots with models, riding on sailboats with girls in bikinis, and singing on stage for thousands of people in arenas?
OK, so I never lived in Dublin and I never attended parochial school - but I still feel this Conor kid's pain. His parents are constantly fighting and are short on money, so he has to attend a school run by the Jesuits. (I didn't really understand this part, because in America, public school is free and the parochial schools all have tuition costs. Either this is a plothole or the system works the other way in Ireland...) Plus he's bullied all the time in his new school, and his parents won't buy him the mandated black shoes, so the priests make him walk around all day in his socks. Yep, that sounds about right - the religion is full of arbitrary rules that serve no purpose except to inconvenience people.
Conor manages to find one ally, a short kid named Darren, and strikes up a conversation with the strange girl across the street, Raphina, who claims to be a model. He offers her a gig in a music video that he's shooting, which would only be a problem if he didn't have a band. Or a song. Or costumes, instruments or an idea for the video - you get the idea. But Darren knows another kid, Eamon, who's got a ton of instruments, and even knows how to play a few of them. A band is hastily put together and a song, "The Riddle of the Model", is hastily written just to Conor can spend some quality time on the shoot with Raphina. On such whims as these, grand plans are formed.
Conor soon becomes that "kid with a band" in the school, starts wearing cooler clothes and make-up (I know, it sounds weird now, but in the 1980's, this made sense...) and develops some serious songwriting chops by working with Eamon. What I liked about his development was being able to see how it changed over time, whenever his brother introduced a new album to him (The Cure, Hall & Oates, Joe Jackson) we got to see how it changed his fashion AND his songwriting. Along with the hits you might expect to hear in a 1980's film - Duran Duran's "Rio", Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out', Genesis's "Paperlate", there are a few originals here, with a couple co-written by Glen Hansard of "Once".
NITPICK POINT: "Drive It Like You Stole It" is a great title for a song, and OK, it's a fine song, too - though I'm not sure the metaphor completely works. But did people say that back in the 1980's? I'd like to find out when the expression was first used, because I'm thinking I never heard anyone say that until the early 2000's. But I could be wrong.
The takeaway here is that being in a band (and practice, and hard work, and self-promotion) will solve all your problems - you can get the girl, you can gain some self-confidence, you can even take down all the bullies in your life. Who's to say this isn't the case? OK, so it can't fix your parents' relationship, but in a few months you'll be so cool that you won't even care. Your hair will be spiked, you'll have a lot of cool new clothes and new friends. Now THAT is what the 1980's music videos promised us, and I'm glad to see it came true for somebody.
Now, the only thing is that I would have recommended to Conor that he run off with Eamon - because as we all know from watching bands over the years, girlfriends come and go. Heck, marriages come and go - but a good, solid songwriting partnership? Man, that comes around once if you're lucky - you better hold on to that, it can take you very far indeed. Lennon & McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates? I rest my case.
Also starring Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Jack Reynor (last seen in "Delivery Man"), Aidan Gillen (last seen in "Circle of Friends"), Maria Doyle Kennedy (last seen in "Albert Nobbs"), Kelly Thornton, Mark McKenna, Ben Carolan, Percy Chamburuka, Conor Hamilton, Karl Rice, Ian Kenny, Don Wycherley, Lydia McGuinness, Peter Campion.
RATING: 7 out of 10 rabbits on the bed
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