Musical Mondays Week 100 Light of Day

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Take a really famous rocker, an actor known for being a somewhat nice guy, make him swear and them both clash with each other and their parents.  We watched

I'm glad Joan Jett was relegated to third billing.  She hogged the spotlight, away from the real star.

[grudlian. 4725]

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. 

[grudlian. 4725]

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.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

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.

 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I was compelled to take a bunch of screen shots though!

First, I'd like a movie about a band called Watermelons

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Also I got super distracted about trying to read the one club basement's walls

Now if you looks close at about 1 o'clock coming out of Jett's head, it says "THE GLOVE". I couldn't get a full picture of that part, but someone had written "SMELL THE GLOVE" there.

Which if you don't know is Michael McKean's other band's album:

 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Here's Trent Reznor (in the background)

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

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

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

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).

[Cameron H. 23786]

14 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

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

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

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

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.

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.

[Cameron H. 23786]

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.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

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.)

 

[SlidePocket 707]

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.

[grudlian. 4725]

11 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

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.

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.

33 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

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

 

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.

[grudlian. 4725]

56 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I was compelled to take a bunch of screen shots though!

First, I'd like a movie about a band called Watermelons

Is the name of the band on Friday "Numbers Band 15 60 75"? Or possibly Numbers Band 15-60 =75"?

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

3 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Is the name of the band on Friday "Numbers Band 15 60 75"? Or possibly Numbers Band 15-60 =75"?

I can't think of one legit possible explanation for that

[Cameron H. 23786]

2 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

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.

Yeah, I think a lot of changes would have to be made to replace Springsteen with Fox. Like, I can see where they kind of tried to keep in that steel mill kind of vibe thing, but they're just so different, I doubt you can just easily sub one for the other. Also, if Springsteen had been cast, I kind of doubt Jett would have been the co-lead. I'm guessing his part was given to her, and Fox's character was added as an afterthought. It would be weird to have the Boss in a band in a movie and be like, "He's the guy who doesn't want to be here." Now that I write that, isn't that kind of what happened in that Brittney Spears' movie Crossroads?

[Cameron H. 23786]

3 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I can't think of one legit possible explanation for that

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.  

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

1 minute ago, Cameron H. said:

It would be weird to have the Boss in a band in a movie and be like, "He's the guy who doesn't want to be here."

He was born to run! I think he was definitely the Joan part, they have a lot of similarities... though I wonder when the kid came in to the story then? That storyline would have been odd for a man.

[grudlian. 4725]

Just now, Cameron H. said:

Yeah, I think a lot of changes would have to be made to replace Springsteen with Fox. Like, I can see where they kind of tried to keep in that steel mill kind of vibe thing, but they're just so different, I doubt you can just easily sub one for the other. Also, if Springsteen had been cast, I kind of doubt Jett would have been the co-lead. I'm guessing his part was given to her, and Fox's character was added as an afterthought. It would be weird to have the Boss in a band in a movie and be like, "He's the guy who doesn't want to be here." Now that I write that, isn't that kind of what happened in that Brittney Spears' movie Crossroads?

Yeah, they wouldn't have gotten Joan Jett if Springsteen was still in this. It makes me wonder if the 1981 version of this would have been good at all. The movie only makes sense in Bruce is the guy who won't quit music. If he's Michael J. Fox's character, who the hell do you get to play the sister against Bruce Springsteen as the musical one in the family?

[grudlian. 4725]

3 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

He was born to run! I think he was definitely the Joan part, they have a lot of similarities... though I wonder when the kid came in to the story then? That storyline would have been odd for a man.

Also, it would have been weird for it to be the minister's baby at that point.

[grudlian. 4725]

4 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Personally, I think The Barbusters is a terrible name for a band. They're never getting anywhere with that.

Lol for real. Since I wasn't paying attention at first, I saw a sign and thought it said "The Babysitters". Not a great name, but I could see a young teenage girl coming up with that as a real "We're the girls babysitting you're kids, but we're secretly punks/rockers at heart! You don't know what we're teaching your kids!!!!" Then they keep that name forever.

I laughed at the name Barbusters when I saw that's what they were called. Best case scenario is you tour a bunch of shitty bars forever just like this band does.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

7 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Yeah, they wouldn't have gotten Joan Jett if Springsteen was still in this. It makes me wonder if the 1981 version of this would have been good at all. The movie only makes sense in Bruce is the guy who won't quit music. If he's Michael J. Fox's character, who the hell do you get to play the sister against Bruce Springsteen as the musical one in the family?

 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. 

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

Just now, grudlian. said:

I laughed at the name Barbusters when I saw that's what they were called. Best case scenario is you tour a bunch of shitty bars forever just like this band does.

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."