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They should've marketed Joan more! She was a star too dammit!

As I watch the clip I just posted, I realize just how invested the movie assumes we are in who the kid's father is. Maybe it's because we're in the 21st century now, but I really didn't give a shit. I would have been happy had they never revealed it.

Yea not original, Robert Plant tells a similar life story (see Zep's "Ten Years Gone") but it's classic enough that I certainly don't mind it being told over and over. That reminds me, I've been reading the new Chris Frantz (of the Talking Heads) autobio and we were discussing the band credits on the Stop Making Sense thread. Franz talks a lot about how Byrne basically stole writing credits. There were songs that Frantz flat-up wrote everything, lyrics and all ("Warning Sign" for one). But he also makes it sounds like Byrne did this maybe less out of being awful, and more like he had this strange compulsion to try to breed discontent. Byrne worked better this way, I guess. ==

Here's Trent Reznor's band doing a pretty decent cover of Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways."

This poster is terrible. It has two taglines. I really hate the tagline "He's back from the future and having a hell of a time!!" Because, he's largely having a lousy time. Also, the O in "Light Of Day" is way too skinny.

Exactly this. Make this a Springsteen song come to life. A guy grew up trapped in a blue collar town. Works at the factory his dad worked at and his dad got him a job. He married his first serious girlfriend out of high school (or high school sweetheart) maybe because he got her pregnant. That's been his life for however many years and will be until he retires...unless his band gets big. It's the only possible escape. He's been playing local bars in his dead end town. The movie could probably just end with them deciding to go on the road. It doesn't matter if he's successful, just that he finally took a chance in his life. Nothing ground breaking. Maybe not even particularly great depending on how well Bruce can act. But it already sounds better than this (although, what we got sounds like a good movie in theory).

We also lose the Uncle having a bath with his nephew scene

Yeah, that feels a little more real, but then you lose the whole "overbearing religious mom playing favorites with her children as she battles ovarian cancer" storyline.

Barbusters also feels more like a Springsteen cover band type name. I like "The Babysitters" much more -- well, maybe not with a 40 year old McKean in the group. It also felt weird that their band didn't really feel like it had niche. It was kind of punk, kind of New Wave, kind of Rockabilly, but also none of those things. And Jett is willing to be like, "We're Metal now" at the drop of a hat. Granted, Fox pushes back on that a bit, but it's still weird that the most overtly "punk" person in the movie is like "whatever we decide to do is cool."

My idea would be what I even think Jett and Fox should've done... they should have been a couple, not siblings. Then you can have Bruce/Joan wanting to go on the road and his wife/her husband who rocks and writes better songs than him/her (ha) wanting or needing to sacrifice and stay home. Not great, but I think that presents some drama at least.

Personally, I think The Barbusters is a terrible name for a band. They're never getting anywhere with that. That being said, I will say a lot of the band dynamics felt really true to life. Especially in that, "big enough to be kind of well-known locally" locally way. Shit like embarrassing each other on stage and playing bits of songs and then stopping, was very much a part of my band experience. Even that dismissive attitude toward bands that are little too polished felt real to me.

I thought that was interesting until I looked up how old Born In The USA is. Born In The USA, the song, was recorded in 1982 (written in 1981, but who knows if the title was a part of the song in 1981) This movie came out in 1987. Paul Schrader had this kicking around for five years and this is the best he got? That kind of makes sense though. I could see Schrader having a good script, then tinkering with it once Springsteen leaves. Then tinkering with some new ideas that cause some other things to need cut out. Then you just get this thing that doesn't quite do anything interesting. For sure. I went from "They're brother and sister" to "oh jeez, I can't believe I thought they were brother and sister" to "ewww...they're brother and sister?!?" I was making lunch while watching the first half hour and chalked part of my confusion up to that, but then it kind of maintained that weird level of way too close family stuff.

With Patty Hearst and The Comfort of Strangers having just been rescued from oblivion by being put out on Blu-ray, this now leaves Light of Day as the only film from Paul Schrader not to see a DVD/Blu-ray release here in the US. I can't imagine if the music rights had anything to do with that.

Yea, I liked the music too, the main song was good and some of the other rock stuff sounded cool. (Though that brief clip of Jett auditioning by singing "Sweet Emotion" was TERRIBLE. Unsure if that was the point? But she got the gig based off of it so I don't know.)

It looks like you all did your research too Did any of you see that this was originally supposed to be a starring vehicle for Springsteen called “Born in the USA.” Bruce liked the title, wrote his song, dropped out of this, but because he’s stolen the song for himself, wrote “Light of Day.” That’s a weird ouroboros of creativity there.

Yeah, I kept thinking to myself that this felt more like a Lifetime movie rather than something made for the big screen. The music was decent though. I couldn’t find much by way of a soundtrack, but “This Means War” is on Jett’s Good Music LP, and Springsteen performs the title track on his In Concert/MTV Plugged album. According to IMDB, he used to close his shows with it — an obscure song from an even more obscure movie.

Dude, there was some super weird energy going on between them. It took me a bit to realize they were brother and sister...

There was a lot of odd product placement in the movie too. Here's Joan Jett being a savage rock star (ie. playing a video game by herself in the corner).

I don't have a sister, but this is weird right? Who slow dances with their sister like they're about to make out?

Here's Trent Reznor (in the background)

I was compelled to take a bunch of screen shots though! First, I'd like a movie about a band called Watermelons

I thought Joan Jett was the best part tbh. It seems she got ripped a lot for her casting/performance, but I enjoyed her here. Should she be carrying a big movie? Nah, but I liked her. Everyone else was too mundane.

On paper, this is a great movie. Written by Paul Schrader. Original music but Bruce Springsteen. Examination of a blue collar family torn apart and healed at the end of Reagan's America. Gena Rowlands. Michael J. Fox at the peak of his fame. This could easily have been a miniseries for television that people still talked about today. This is just flat throughout. Every big reveal doesn't get much out of me. The acting is just okay. I don't think the casting is bad but everyone feels unconvincing in most scenes. I don't buy Michael J. Fox ever in this band. Joan Jett never quite pulls off the biggest emotional scenes (but I do think she's decent in this). The movie looks cheap. There are some good scenes but most of this feels 75% there. Like every person in this production said "yeah, I think we got it that time," but they didn't get it.

The weirdest thing about this is that I thought "Michael Mckean is absolutely not convincing as a bassist in a rock band" but Spinal Tap had already come out.

Hey all! As promised, I’ve put together an updated Musical Mondays rotation. Nothing really has changed, in terms of order, except I’ve excised the people that can no longer participate. This should help eliminate the need to track people down when it’s their week. Of course, we welcome all our old friends to come back any time they can (as well as welcome new friends as they come ) Below is the current list of participants. If your name is not on the list, it’s because you have either asked to be removed or didn’t respond when I asked people to re-up. If you would like to be added (or re-added), feel free to say so Musical Mondays Cameron H TomSpanks Cam Bert Quasar Sniffer Cinco DeNio JammerLea Grudlian SlidePocket Gigi-tastic Theworstbuddhist AlmostaGhost Graham S