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It's interesting reading this (relatively short thread) from beginning to end as a time capsule of the birth of a cult film. The first several posts are pretty harsh with some even dismissing it before (and without intention of) seeing it and one loud ardent supporter. The last several posts have a very different tone, mostly championing the film. I haven't seen it but the evolution of this thread sure makes me want to.

I will say I’ve come around to this film, and genuinely enjoyed the extended version for the breathing room it gives to the improv and the more specific jokes. I probably need to give it a newer viewing, and I still think the film could have been better (although probably at the cost of being less commercial) but this one of the better comedies of it’s era.

I think it helps to now have stepped back a bit more from what Dewey Cox was satirizing and as such, I found it to be extremely on-target. It sure isn't always very tasty, but in its jokes and in its songs, but it is more refined than what I expected to be. Funnily enough, I did have the discussion about the poor taste of the brother's death', and I don't find it to be that tasteless, but just a gross ridiculous way to laugh at the "original trauma" trope (down to Raymond Barry casually singing about it, having repeated so many times in the movie "the wrong kid died" it's now embedded in its daily life !).

But it's also very effective at shooting down various biopics' tropes : flashback structure just before an event concert, original trauma, family issues (including the first wife doubting the main character's talent), label issues, issues with the bandmates fixed in one casual scene at the end of the movie, career-defining songs being titled from real-life conversation (followed by an unbelievable fast-track recording - followed by an instant chart-blowing release on the radios 2 hours later), stars being played by actors who don't look like so the movie is compelled to say their names out loud so that the viewers know who they're supposed to be (down to the inconsistant accents changing from line to line), the main character having anger fits and destroying whatever is nearby, and of course drug issues (here with Meadows always being nearby to offer drugs to Dewey while still insisting "he doesn't want to take no part in this crap") inducing instant wild music style changes, all this down to the post-credits "comparisons with the real story" pictures.

When thinking about Bohemian Rhapsody, it seemed to tick quite a lot of these.

And the OST is fascinating in how it manages to satire tons of musical styles while still being done in a very serious and competent manner. It could sound like a Lonely Island-style disc, but is actually quite the opposite.

It's not an easy feat to write music that's a parody of a variety of specific genres and styles and still work as a genuinely GOOD example of same, but Walk Hard does it effortlessly. The soundtrack album is a great listen even outside of the film.

I've been listening to it for some months now indeed. Beautiful Ride, especially, is a very nice listen.

The conversation here made me rewatch the film, and then order the extended cut on blu ray - the two-hour version is, from what I can tell in watching it in the background while I work, maybe funnier - and easier to "get". The theatrical cut is so deadpan in rehearsing biopic cliches that I remember receiving it a decade ago as a slightly skewed homage, not quite parody - which I think still decently describes the music. It's either affectionate parody or it's played so straight that the absurdity comes across very dryly. The longer version has enough extra goofiness that it's easier to recognize the genre, and it gets closer at times to 'Airplane' (zany!) than 'Young Frankenstein', although I think it has more in common tonally with the latter.

tenia wrote: Fri May 31, 2019 3:49 pm But it's also very effective at shooting down various biopics' tropes : flashback structure just before an event concert, original trauma, family issues (including the first wife doubting the main character's talent), label issues, issues with the bandmates fixed in one casual scene at the end of the movie, career-defining songs being titled from real-life conversation (followed by an unbelievable fast-track recording - followed by an instant chart-blowing release on the radios 2 hours later), stars being played by actors who don't look like so the movie is compelled to say their names out loud so that the viewers know who they're supposed to be (down to the inconsistant accents changing from line to line), the main character having anger fits and destroying whatever is nearby, and of course drug issues (here with Meadows always being nearby to offer drugs to Dewey while still insisting "he doesn't want to take no part in this crap") inducing instant wild music style changes, all this down to the post-credits "comparisons with the real story" pictures.

When thinking about Bohemian Rhapsody, it seemed to tick quite a lot of these.

This pretty well done video made the rounds a few months back around awards season as a direct response the stale formula as seen in Bohemian Rhapsody, and one of its conclusions is that if Walk Hard wasn't so forgotten it could have made at least a little difference in shaking the genre up.

I've read people saying that it did make some difference back then, which is why we had Ray and Walk The Line and then not much more following this kind of big Hollywood music biopic tropes for a few years (and then everyone forgot about it and resumed as usual).

It is sad however to see that most of these tropes were quite effectively adressed by Walk Hard but nobody really cares.

The point of a musician biopic isn't to break away from obvious tropes or conventions, it's to see them re-animated by a different person's biography - that gives it just enough freshness to bring the $$$

I do believe the fact that some crowds are that easy to please shouldn't be an excuse for screenwriting laziness. But hey, people sure love easy money.

It would be nice, sure - I'm just commenting on why it doesn't happen. I can't name a good non-big-Hollywood music biopic off the top of my head.

I still can't get over the credits rolling with a song about how Dewey Cox died sung by Dewey Cox

onedimension wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:14 pm It would be nice, sure - I'm just commenting on why it doesn't happen. I can't name a good non-big-Hollywood music biopic off the top of my head.

Name a random Ken Russell film.

knives wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:19 pm

onedimension wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:14 pm It would be nice, sure - I'm just commenting on why it doesn't happen. I can't name a good non-big-Hollywood music biopic off the top of my head.

Name a random Ken Russell film.

I've noted these before, but Control, Love and Mercy, I'm Not There, and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould are all superb music biopics...and each avoids the usual cliches by presenting the story using a restricted timeline (the first two) or in a completely unorthodox manner (the latter two).

With that in mind I actually just watched Sid and Nancy which is a small British film that avoids the cliches mostly because there's no hope of recovery for them. Which makes me think of Stone's Doors biopic which also necessarily changes the formula though is a bog budget Hollywood pic.