Garage Days is an amiable,
playful nothing of a picture. The most impressive part of that is
that it is from Alex Proyas, the director of two of the most brilliantly
oppressive films of the last decade. With both The Crow and
Dark City, Proyas ushered in the black leather trench coat
chic of The Matrix and serious, disaffected youth everywhere.
This time Proyas turns his visionary eye to something with a bit more
color, but a lot less depth.
The hack pitch of this picture goes would go something like, "It's
The Commitments meets Empire Records, but it's Australian."
The critic just tacks on, "and not quite as good as either picture."
Freddy (Kick Gurry) has heavy metal wishes and rock and roll dreams,
even when he's busy not satisfying his band's bass player, Tanya
(Pia Miranda). Meanwhile his lead guitar Joe (Brett Stiller) isn't
paying enough attention to his own girlfriend (Maya Stange). Throw
in a drug-obsessed, over-sexed drummer (Chris Sadrinna) and only
the dimmest bulb doesn't know how to put Humpty Dumpty back together
again.
The nice thing is Proyas gets most of the obvious reordering of
these relationships out of the way early, and then enjoys the ensuing
carnage. If the picture has one overly redeeming feature it's that
it takes really standard material and assembles it a little differently
than usual. There is a pregnancy, a worried father, and a crazy
goth chick. All of these are weaved woven around the band's attempts
at getting its first big break. As much fun as this all sounds,
it's at best okay.
Everything about this film is just okay. No real risks are taken
and therefore no real payoff is received. The cast seems talented
enough but, except for Sadrinna, they don't really get to show it.
Sadrinna gets all the fun, with wide, eye-linered lids and an odd
resemblance to a younger, more exciting Val Kilmer.
In
fact, if this picture has one good excuse it's the potential use
as a 'new talent sampler' for a hurting industry. While there's
more than a fair selection of Aussie acting talent working these
days, a few more wouldn't hurt. Marton Csokas, while he is certainly
tired of hearing it, does an excellent Russell Crowe-on-a-budget
in his role as a sleazy promoter, and Pia Miranda as a bass player
is just as cute as Go-Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin.
Many of Garage Days' jokes fall flat because the subject
matter is already so outrageous. One character is given a book about
the 'Painted Bands of the 70's' entitled Kiss and Make-up. Cute,
unless you know this joke title is the actual title of Gene Simmons'
latest book. The only scenes of true rock and roll rebellion come
against the slot machines that Freddy sees as the vanguard of the
enemy. Maybe that's why the over-the-top performances are the ones
that work; the rest come off real and even real rock and roll doesn't
come off real.
Proyas shows his that he still has chops when it comes to stimulating
visuals - even with ordinary subject matter. A standard 'dejected
in the rain' scene gets a different spin with huge digital raindrops
frozen in the air. The only problem with the style in this one is
that it starts fresh and vibrant, and by the end it devolves into
fairly standard teen comedy direction. Like Baz Luhrman, Proyas
bursts out of the gate but fails to sustain his breathless pace.
Not the rebellious rock anthem it seems to believe it is, Garage
Days is fine enough bubble gum pop. It's the kind of movie with
a kitschy little curtain call/dance number to send the crowd home
smiling. A few of these kids will go on to bigger and better things,
and Proyas shows his skills are still intact, they just may not
lie in comedy. Destined to close quietly and be discovered and loved
by a few, Garage Days has the makings of a cult picture -
or at least one of the more watchable features on VH-1's Movies
That Rock.