BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
I love musician bio-pics a lot. I love the coming up story of an artist who hits it big. I know “The Doors” isn’t exactly factually accurate, but it’s one of my favorite movies of all time. The same can even be said for fictitious musical acts. The mockumentary CB4 is up there on my “all time” list as well. Of course we can’t forget “Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure”, the bio-pic of the Wyld Stallyns. The point is that if it’s about music I’ll give it a chance and probably like it. The movie “The Perfect Age of Rock n’ Roll” is a music-themed drama. It’s an independent film on all levels. It have that gritty vibe, deeper content, inspired story, and out of the box visuals. The story revolves around two longtime friends. One of the, played by Kevin Zegers, became a huge rock star and the other, Jason Ritter, stayed in their home town and took on a more typical small town life. The rocker’s first album was a huge hit and he needs to record a follow up. His path leads him back home, but for a few different reasons. Kevin Zegers’ plays “Spyder”, the gothy hair metal rock star. He’s tragic, over the top, and kind of a dick. Zegers is great in the role. Jason Ritter has been popping up in tons of awesome stuff over the past few years. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite actors to watch and this movie is another reason why. He plays the friend who was left behind and carries the movie very nicely. We also get a solid performance in Peter Fonda, an old-timer roadie who is tied in with the former friends past as well. Taryn Manning’s role in the movie is interesting. She’s got business with the band, but her presence adds to the story and the movie a lot. I’ve seen her in things before, but I felt this was probably the strongest performance of hers so far. She gets lost in the role and you get lost in her swagger. The music isn’t that bad either. A lot of movies about fake musicians has lame music. It’s not that horrible here at all. I appreciated this movie a lot more than I thought I would. I’m a movie nerd so I’m all for indies and I love music movies so I thought this would AT LEAST be an entertaining few hours. Instead it lingered with me. This movie isn’t for everyone. If you want a big story, big action, or something spoon fed to you then you’ll likely find this boring. If you’re like me and like substance, human nature, and a realistic look at a rock and roll lifestyle then this is for you. If anything you want to watch it to see Zegers, Ritter, and Manning deliver awesome performances. But come for that, stay for the good movie. A-
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