Tom Siebert
Well made, well-acted, sporadically engrossing snapshot of a moment in time and some players in it that doesn't follow through (or even finish). It feels like a pilot for a TV series that didn't get picked up, with tons of loose ends dangling, but by the time we get there we don't much care anymore. Setup is solid, characters are decently developed, dialog is mostly believable (I just don't think people dropped the F-bomb back in the early 60s the way they do here). But the story makes huge leaps in time, feels choppy and over-edited, and by the cheap cop-out ending--a character basically wanders onto the middle of the screen, breaks the fourth wall and starts addressing the audience to tell us what the movie's about--I was ready to throw up my hands.Writer/Director David Chase is a genius, and you can see traces of it here, but this film feels unfinished. I didn't hate it, it's well made and the cast is appealing, but it's the epitome of a "meh" movie in the end.
coreyjmesler
OK, this isn't 'The Commitments' or 'Georgia' or 'Grace of my Heart' or even 'Backbeat,' but this movie has charm, wit, a nice script, appealing young actors (Jack Huston, John Magara and Bella Heathcote, especially) and the most authentic reproduction of music from the start of the 60s to the end of the 60s that I can remember seeing since, well, 'The Commitments.' From the opening shot of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards contemplating starting a blues rock band to the charming voice over, to the music scenes (every one of which made me tap my toe) to the graceful and surprising, magical ending, this movie had me. And the sex scenes certainly add to the thrill. I love 60s music and it has to be done well for me to sit up and take notice. This film made me sit up and take notice.
SnoopyStyle
This is a movie about a band that DOESN'T make it. The movie starts around the assassination of JFK. Douglas (John Magaro) is a shy nerdy high school kid from New Jersey. He joins a neighborhood band to play the drums. With the encouragement of hot girl Grace (Bella Heathcote), he becomes the lead singer. He clashes with his father (James Gandolfini). The band members clash with each other as they keep trying to make it.This is written and directed by David Chase which would explain how the movie got such a talent as Gandolfini playing the dad. And it's great to see him although he does overpower everybody in the movie. John Magaro has a good interesting look to him. But he doesn't have the screen presence to compete against Gandolfini.The movie invokes all the historic touchstones of the era. It will give the people of that era a nostalgia overload. At times, it feels like a history test review. It gets a lot of the music of the era. It's impressive considering the probable costs.As for the story, it gets very meandering. There isn't anything particularly original, but Gandolfini is able to elevate the material when he's on screen. John Magaro does struggle to maintain the attention that's require of a lead. Bella Heathcote gives a cold detached performance with her hot model looks. Although she handles her one big scene relatively well.As for the ending, there is a more natural ending to this movie 15 minutes earlier. I would prefer the movie ended there. The actual ending added very little, and the surrealism at the end doesn't fit the rest of the movie. Overall, the movie has some good moments, but it's too uneven.
Wheatpenny
As with most filmmakers who work in themes, you should watch this to see Chase's perspective on the material, not for the story itself. Its seemingly formless structure will throw off some viewers, but it's very much in line with his body of work, being less about the music and the era and more about the effects of the passage of time, specifically the tug of the past on the present and the evolution of character (or not) as the years go by. It's an autobiographical elaboration on the themes in the dark and sad final seasons of the Sopranos, though it does have plenty of the usual witty Chase touches as well, like the kids dancing away the JFK retrospective. There's a pervasive sense of nostalgia because the setting feels realistic, neither idealistic like a Spielberg/Lucas movie nor revisionist like the progressive Pleasantville-type movies whose intention is to show us all how the past wasn't as enlightened as today. The downside is that it's such a well-covered period and milieu (for my generation The Wonder Years is the reference point) that it's hard to find something original to say. But go in with the understanding that it's more complex than it appears and it'll give you plenty to chew on afterward. At one point the lead and his girlfriend are watching Blow-Up and he comments on how strange it is there's no music to tell you when someone's going to get killed, and she replies that the sound of the wind in the trees is the music, which sums up this movie pretty well.
AD
