Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. 433 is here to tell you about a movie not really on the radar called THE ROCKER, starring Rainn Wilson, Aziz Ansari, Jeff Garlin and Jane Lynch... that's quite a cast of some of the best supporting comedians working right now. I especially love Aziz, having seen him open for Patton Oswalt and having dug his show HUMAN GIANT, and Jeff Garlin is the man. Sounds like a winner of a movie as well. Here's the review! Enjoy!
Hey, Harry! I just got home from a screening of THE ROCKER, Rainn Wilson's new movie. All in all, a pretty fun time. Wilson plays Robert "Fish" Fishman, drummer for the '80s hard rock band "Vesuvius", on the verge of their big break. In typical movie fashion, getting that break means doing something they don't want to do: the band's manager wants them to get rid of Fish so the nephew of a record exec can play drums for them. The band mulls it over, but with the prospect of cash and groupies dangled in their faces, makes the decision that sets the events of the film in motion. It's weird that a film that begins in 1986 can be thought of as a period piece, but the opening scene with Rainn's band playing their first big show made me harken back to watching MTV on afternoons after elementary school. It was funny without being a cartoon -- more laughing at myself that I ever thought those day-glo lycra jumpsuits and feathered hair was ever cool. Suddenly, it's 20 years later, and Fish is working a dead-end call-center job when a co-worker (HUMAN GIANT's Aziz Ansari) plays the newest album by Vesuvius, who have been chart toppers for the past two decades. Fish attacks him, loses his job, and has to move in with his sister's family...and his nephew just happens to have a band...that just happens to need a drummer. The cast features Jane Lynch (best known as the lesbian dog trainer in BEST IN SHOW) as Fish's sister, Howard Hessmann as the tour bus driver, and Christina Applegate as the bandleader's mother and Fish's hopeful love interest. By far the standout comedic performance was Jeff Garlin as Fish's brother-in-law Stan, who lives his suburban life vicariously through Fish. The kids in the band are are okay all in all -- real-looking, not Abercrombie & Fitch (the butt of a quite funny joke late in the film) models, with real teenage-sounding dialogue. My only two problems with the movie were the problems that plague tons of movies: 1) There were all these "touching" moments where the humor stops for a moment so the main character can help someone feel better about themselves -- the fat kid is sad because he thinks girls won't like him because he's fat, the brooding kid is sad because his dad left him at an early age, and the girl is sad because girls are not allowed to be happy in movie unless boys like them. Every comedy seems to have this problem these days, trying to make themselves "sweet". AIRPLANE! and NAKED GUN didn't need to slow down and have a serious moment to sell the movie -- they were just balls-to-the-wall funny from beginning to end. 2) Like many movies featuring fictional bands, the bad had three songs that they just played over and over again, and they weren't very good. One of the reasons that JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS was so good was that the band had a good number of catchy rock songs. It made for more interesting concert footage, and was good enough to release on its own as an album and sell very well. Rainn Wilson was quite good, and does surprisingly well with his first starring role in a feature film. He handles slapstick very well, and plenty of concert footage gives him ample chances to showcase his comedic drumming. He looks like he's actually a pretty good drummer, which helps sell the joke. When he plays an office drone, he carries himself differently and speaks differently than he does as Dwight on THE OFFICE, which was also welcome. All in all, it was a good movie. Not perfect, but I was entertained. THE ROCKER opens in US cinemas August 1st. Hope you can use this review, Harry. See you at CONvergence next month! - 433
