BEFORE: I want to get to a section about art, like paintings in museums art, that should get me closer to a few more summer blockbusters like the latest "Mission: Impossible" film that is airing on premium cable now. Plus I see a way to work in some Joaquin Phoenix films, like that "Napoleon" film that was Oscar-nominated, I think I can get to that one too before August is over. Tonight's film is a last-minute drop-in, I made the basic framework for a chain that should end with the "Divergent" series, but if I see an opportunity to add some mortar between the bricks, and clear another film off the secondary (streaming) list, I'm going to take it. What could possibly go wrong? This one was on Netflix when I first put it on the streaming list, but apparently it's scrolled off of that platform (it happens if I take too long) and now it's on Tubi.
Elisabeth Moss carries over from "Next Goal Wins".
THE PLOT: A self-destructive punk rocker struggles with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.
AFTER: Yeah, I'm just not feeling this one today. How is this a movie? Why is this a movie? Who cares about these characters, because I sure don't. A female punk rocker, who gives a damn? Oh, did the rock star drink too much? Did the rock star have a bad marriage? Oh, I really feel sorry for her, if only she had been smarter or learned a few things along the way about what being a rock star can do to your personal life. We've had rock stars for decades, why didn't she know these things that everyone else understands?
Am I supposed to find this innovative or groundbreaking just because this happens to be a female rock star? Well, the rules are the same, we have gender equality now, at least in this regard, so she really should have paid more attention, and figured out that if she wanted to be a female Mick Jagger or a female Bowie or the next Joan Jett, well there was always going to be a price to pay. And when you mix fame with ego and addiction, well that's a combination that never ends well. Somehow we're not getting smarter as a species, because some people are just making the same mistakes over and over again, or at least making the same mistakes that other people who went before them did, so we all need to start paying more attention. Look, I'm not signing up to go fight in a foreign war or be part of an invasion force, because other people have done that and died. I'm not trying to climb Mount Everest or go skydiving, for the same reasons. And I don't aspire to be a rock star, because show me one who lived that life and managed to be successful and keep their personal life together AND also not develop a big ego about it. Yeah, I thought so.
But this just feels like a dumb, pointless movie all around. The name of the band (Something She) is really dumb. The stage name of the lead character is similarly stupid. The songs are forgettable, and I didn't even grasp what the title of the film meant, I thought it meant that the rock star smelled bad, but then I found out it referred to her liking the smell of her baby daughter. Nope, that's still dumb and not even a whole lot better than my first thought.
Is punk rock even a thing any more? I don't know and I don't care. I can't name one punk band that's still around, all the Ramones are dead except one and I never cared for the Clash or the Sex Pistols. Female punk, OK, maybe that's a little different, because it was trendy for a while to have the Riot Grrls and Avril Lavigne, I think, plus Joan Jett is immortal I'm pretty sure, but is punk a thing right now? Only if Pussy Riot counts, if not then even female punk bands are old hat, but what do I know, I'm old and I haven't been out to the music clubs since Air Supply swung through town back when B.B. King's was still open.
Part of me just wants to skip this review and not admit I even watched this, it's the middle film in a 3-movie mini-chain with Elisabeth Moss, so it would be easy to just scrap it from the books, but no, that's not playing fairly, and I only did that once before, with that documentary about Woodstock 1999. (I still posted the review, I just didn't count it in my stats, I was so upset.). No, I've got to learn to take the bad with the good, and this is just a bad film, but things are bound to get better, they just have to.
Like, MAYBE I could see it if this Becky Something character were intended as a thinly-veiled Courtney Love, because Courtney considered herself "punk" and sure, I didn't like her at all but I know other people found something in her music, or else she was the music act that everyone loved to hate, I'm not sure. She seems to have dropped off the radar completely, I don't know if she had an epiphany like the rock star here, who realizes that she can't BE a rock star without also drinking and taking drugs and putting herself at risk, and that there are more important things in life than being famous, like spending time with your daughter I guess.
But no, the director has said that the character is more inspired by Axl Rose than Courtney Love, and the "Phantom of the Opera" t-shirt she wears is another clue, that she's supposed to be this creature that metaphorically lives in the basement underworld and comes up and wreaks havoc in everyone else's life while she's backstage. Still seems like weak sauce to me, even with this layer of symbolism included.
Remember that I love movies about rock, documentaries especially, and I love docs that show famous bands recording in sound studios, like "Muscle Shoals", "Sound City" and "The Wrecking Crew" - but this just wasn't in a league with those films. This was five scenes from a fictional character's life, one in the sound studio and four that were backstage arguments, and to me what happens backstage before a show is probably the part of being a rocker that I am least interested in, just saying. Like who cares about the dressing room drama, or whether the band members got the right color of m&m's at the craft table? Not me, sorry.
Also starring Cara Delevingne (last seen in "Tulip Fever"), Dan Stevens (last seen in "Blithe Spirit"), Agyness Deyn (last seen in "Hail, Caesar!"), Gayle Rankin (last seen in "Worth"), Ashley Benson (last seen in "13 Going on 30"), Dylan Gelula (last seen in "Horse Girl"), Eka Darville, Lindsay Burdge (last seen in "Duck Butter"), Hannah Gross (last seen in "Tesla"), Virginia Madsen (last seen in "Candyman"), Eric Stoltz (last seen in "2 Days in the Valley"), Amber Heard (last seen in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom"), Daisy Pugh-Weiss, Jessie Pinnick, Yusef Bulos (last seen in "The Thomas Crown Affair"), Keith Poulson (last heard in "My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea"), Kentucker Audley (last seen in "Ain't Them Bodies Saints"), Alexis Krauss (last seen in "Premium Rush"), Craig Butta (last seen in "Person to Person"), David Godlis, Stephen Gurewitz, Andrew Nunziata.
RATING: 3 out of 10 gold records - and I really don't think we should give them to artists who are just going to smash them five minutes later. If you can't appreciate them and take care of them you don't deserve them.
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