Roadie (2012)

The Worst Film Ever

Pretty Good

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

IMDb currently has this movie top listed as "Comedy". That plus its eponymous association with the 1980 B-movie classic "Roadie" starring Meat Loaf, not to mention this movie's deceptive DVD tagline ("Sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll. It was fun while it lasted") might lead you to expect... I dunno... a comedy?It's not. If we're ok with that, then let's move on to what this movie really is."Roadie" (2011) is a brutally honest, sometimes bizarre but mostly lucid look at returning to an ordinary life after living on the road for 20 years. The movie doesn't focus on the rockstar life (and in fact the only references we get are a few hazy flashbacks in the beginning) but instead plants us squarely in the real world, Queens NY to be exact, where our protagonist Jimmy is forced to confront reality for perhaps the first time in his life.The entire story occupies the space of about 24 hours from Jimmy's arrival at his estranged mother's house to his chance encounter with the old high school douchebag who coincidentally married Jimmy's high school sweetheart. The high school sweetheart herself is an amateur musician, and this (plus Jimmy's refusal to accept his failure in life) leads him to claim he's the manager for Blue Oyster Cult. The plot certainly sounds like it could be a raucous rib tickler, but the material is played straight, dramatic rather than farcical, even a bit on the disturbing/dark side.This came as a big surprise, but once I realized how well everything was presented--the excellent and I mean EXCELLENT acting by all 3 leads plus the mother, the appropriate pace giving things time to breathe, the subtle brooding vibe of cinematography, and of course the great script with believable dialogue--I was sucked in and riveted until the very end.This film has a slow, careful buildup to an explosive climactic scene and a thoughtful aftermath which will stick in your mind for a long time. The main question being: Whose reality is more valid, those who accept their mediocrity but hang on to dreams of a better future, or those who fall from success but hang onto dreams/fantasies of their past? If that last sentence didn't make a lotta sense, just watch the movie and you'll see what I mean."Roadie" has a distinctly indie vibe (as much as I hate to use that term) which means it's not glossy, snappy paced and glamorous like most Hollywood blockbusters. The style reminded me of some of Vincent Gallo's work ("Buffalo 66", "The Brown Bunny") in the same way Gallo weaves a surreal story within the confines of a very real world. If you're not familiar with Gallo, think of maybe "Leaving Las Vegas" where the main character comes from a questionable past and refuses to accept a new future.Again, this is NOT a rock 'n' roll movie, though it does have some great classic rock tunes on the soundtrack (Blue Oyster Cult, Robin Trower, Jethro Tull, The Ramones). So don't expect Spinal Tap! "Roadie" might be closer to the excellent washed-up-musician flicks "Crazy Heart" or "Searching for an Echo".

I watched this movie for two reasons. First, I am a huge fan of Blue Oyster Cult. Been listening to BOC since 1973 and have seen them about 60 times in concert. Second, I worked as a sound engineer, stage manager, production assistant and local crew stagehand at thousands of shows in Arizona. Though I only did a few "road" gigs and most of what I did was local work, I have many "roadie" friends that have been around the world with some pretty big named bands. So my love for BOC and my time spent working in the business is what drew me to this movie. While the story is a bit slow, I still liked it and could relate to many of the scenes. I remember going back to my old high school bedroom at my parent's house after moving away. It was pretty surreal just like in the movie when Jimmy comes home, puts on an old Robin Trower record and lays in his bed surrounded by posters of his rock heroes from the days of his youth and sings along at the top of his lungs. I can also relate to bumping into old friends after I had moved away and some of the dialog and reminiscing that takes place. Of course, I loved the soundtrack! Not many movies feature Buck's Boogie, Last Days Of May, See You in Black, Cities on Flames and The Red and The Black! Plus some Trower, Tull and of course Jackson Browne's tribute to roadies, The Load Out! One of my favorite parts is when they are in the bar and Jimmy is trying to describe BOC's music. Something that many have tried to do for years now and failed. Jimmy says "The Thinking Man's Metal" "That's how the critic's described them" and to me that best sums it up. Jimmy and Nicky are in the bar and Cities On Flame is playing on the juke box. Nicky says he never got BOC and Jimmy attempts to explain how good they were to him. The script goes something like this: "And the drumming, it would get all jazzy, but underneath all those f#@%ing heavy riffs!I mean Buck Dharma, his solo on Dominance and Submission is without question the BEST hard rock guitar solo of the era, hands down! It sums up everything that came before it. I mean Hendrix, Zeppelin, Townshend. Dharma, he takes a little bit from all of them and mashes it all together into one f#@%in' brilliant solo that says, THIS! THIS is what it's all about! It was like science fiction poetry on a turntable. All these weird worlds. They were just so much smarter than everything else that was around. Naw man, BOC, they were better. And they should have been even bigger!" For me the movie was just what I expected, no blockbuster, no action packed car chases, just a movie about coming home to your roots to see your aging mom, your rusted out old car, your old neighborhood, some old high school friends and the collection of vinyl and rock posters in your bedroom that would allow you to escape reality for just a little while.

Jimmy (Ron Eldard) has been a roadie for the Blue Oyster Cult for the past twenty-six years. Now in his mid-forties, he has just been fired. Roadies can potentially make hundreds if not thousands of dollars a week, but he either wasn't very good at his job or he spent his money recklessly. Whatever the case, he's left penniless and with no place to stay. He will repeatedly try to contact an unseen man named Bobby over his cell phone, angrily demanding he be given another chance. In the meantime, he will return to his old neighborhood in Queens, where he will reunite with his ailing mother (Lois Smith). He will lie and tell her that he manages the BOC, that he has written several of their songs, and that in a week's time he'll be with them on their South American tour. He will also discover that his mother has kept his old room exactly as he left it as a teenager, the walls adorned with posters of rock idols, the shelves stocked with classic LP albums."Roadie" is a sad, reflective portrait of a desperate man clinging to his own delusions. It's not enough that he has spent much of his adult life as a roadie; he must pass himself off as someone he never was in the naïve belief that it will make him look more important. All he's doing is feeding into his own broken dreams of rock 'n' roll stardom, and in the process keeping himself hopelessly stuck in the past. And yet it's obvious that time has long since caught up with him. He's not a kid anymore; he can't hop around from city to city and country to country with the same stamina he once had. He has put on some weight, and while others will freely speculate on the number of women he has slept with on the road, it's highly unlikely he has taken part in anything like that.Apart from his mother, Jimmy also reunites with his ex-girlfriend, Nikki (Jill Hennessy), who gets by singing in a local lounge. She's married to Jimmy's former nemesis, Randy (Bobby Cannavale), who even now insists on referring to Jimmy as Testicles, an intentional mispronunciation of his last name. In many ways, Nikki and Randy are just as stuck in the past as Jimmy is. They will, for example, arrange to relive their high school days with Jimmy by checking into a motel room and indulging in booze, cocaine, and rock music. But it runs deeper than that. As a teenager, Randy was essentially a bully; he now channels his hostility into subtler forms of obnoxious behavior, like making contrarian statements about the BOC. The cruel irony is that the meanest person in Jimmy's life is the only one to see right through him.As for Nikki, she puts up a good front, but it's obvious that within is a person who longs for more than a weekly gig in a barroom lounge. Her love for Randy is perhaps more complicated than it need be; while she doesn't appreciate his latent immaturity, and while she certainly doesn't approve of his mistreatment of Jimmy, she will always make excuses for his behavior. Does she truly see past his character flaws, or is she desperately trying to put a positive spin on the man she settled for? I'm not really sure. What I do know is that her feelings for Jimmy are evident, even as early as their very first scene together. Those old feelings haven't subsided. She will occasionally suggest to Jimmy that he introduce her to people in the music industry, or at the very least pass along her demo CD. Knowing what we know about Jimmy, you can't help but feel sorry for her in those moments.For a subplot that comprises the bulk of the movie, it's a shame it had to be the most contrived and routine. Of course Jimmy would run into his old flame upon returning home. Of course she has gotten married to his enemy, who's little more than a one-note caricature. Of course Jimmy would stir within his old flame a long-dormant desire to be something greater. Having said this, it's handled about as well as can be expected. I certainly don't mind the fact that it features the single best line of the film, and the reason I say it's the best is because it's simultaneously hilarious and depressingly telling. It has been reserved for Eldard; as Jimmy and Nikki listen to a record in his old room, he looks at her and says with a straight face, "I don't focus on the past, Nikki. That's a waste of time."The subplot involving Jimmy and his mother is far more compelling, although I must admit, I had a hard time reading the latter character. Her mind drifts very easily. In one fell swoop, she will tell Jimmy how nice it is to have him home, lament about the life he never shared with her, express disappointment that he hasn't made more of himself, encourage him to get reacquainted with the neighbors, and offer to make him lunch before becoming distracted by her backyard garden, which she spends a lot of time in. Are the filmmakers hinting at something serious, such as the early stages of Alzheimer's or dementia? It's possible, although I can't say for sure. Regardless, I found the relationship between mother and son fascinating. Their scenes add an extra dimension to "Roadie," one that prevents it from becoming too conventional.-- Chris Pandolfi (www.atatheaternearyou.net)

Could this movie have been better??? Probably; but as it stands the movie is still very good. Don't know that I would rate it an 8, but it was a very solid 7 and borderline 8 or a very high 7. The acting was good and all the characters play their roles perfectly. There are some scenes that seem a tad out of place and a scene or two that are inserted for no apparent reason other than to come up with a reason to try and tie in the end of the movie (you'll understand when you watch it) hence my 7 rating. The soundtrack is great at times and debatable during others. Its not a "must see" movie but it is definitely one to check out if your in the mood for a good flick.