The Music Never Stopped

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A man with severe memory loss (Lou Taylor Pucci), learns to recall his teenage years by listening to the music of the 60s, and through the music, also manages to rekindle a failed relationship with his father (J.K. Simmons).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: J.K. Simmons, Lou Taylor Pucci, Julia Ormond, Cara Seymour, Mia Maestro, Tammy Blanchard, Scott Adsit, Max Antisell

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. It's trying to attract the "mature" audience that fell so hard for The Visitor, and quite frankly, I think that audience will be pleased with this story of father and son estrangement. But don't expect to flip out over it like you did the former. This is a personal message to my Dad. I apologize to all those of you who are not him.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: It teeters on the edge of the ability to do so.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It teeters on the edge of the ability to do this, too... or either, depending on if you're a glass full or glass empty kind of person.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Lou Taylor Pucci's role is that kind that actors take on in hopes of gaining award recognition. Unfortunately, as is the case with all the roles I've seen him play, there is something a little too actor-y about his work. In other words, he's self-conscious. So, no awards. But the songs on the soundtrack have won enough awards, between them, to more than make up for it.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: J.K. Simmons does a nice job of playing a character with more than one dimension. Among the other members of the cast, I heard English accents slipping out of more than one of them, and on more than one occasion.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Despite the familiar soundtrack, there is an energy missing from the film, which is causing all the emotional teetering. I'm pretty sure it's because first time director, Jim Kohlberg, is still learning how to control his edits.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It's based on a true story, and without that little nugget, it would be even more predictable than it is.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: The Music Never Stopped Trailer

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I'm Not There

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: After sitting through the movie, I can honestly say that I have no idea. For anyone who still cares, I’ve quoted imdb.com, “Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where seven characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.” ... Ohhhh, “Ruminations!”

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Wishaw, Julianne Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood, David Cross

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! I was dead bored from the beginning to the end. At one point, a character I’ll call, “Random Townsperson #1” started telling Richard Gere that the people in the town had begun shooting themselves in the face and slitting their own throats, and I actually felt a tinge of jealousy. Bottom line, if you don’t already know everything there is to know about Bob Dylan, you will have no chance of following what’s going on in this supposed art film. In fact, you may not even know that this is a movie about Bob Dylan. Personally, I think a movie should be able to stand alone in both space and time, and considering we’re already 40 years beyond the height of Bob Dylan’s relevance, the audience for this movie has already shrunk to who cares. If you want to get anything out of this movie, you will most likely have to read a summary review of it in advance.

Here is some other suggested reading material you’ll need to peruse before you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan, Bob Dylan: the Life and Time of a an American Icon, by Michael Schuman, Bob Dylan: the Essential Interviews, by Jonathan Cott, Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll, by David Boucher, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Bob Dylan, the Early Years: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Gill…Oh, just go to Amazon, and browse for yourself.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Only if your dreams are funny. What I’m saying is that you’ll be far too asleep to laugh at anything happening on the screen.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Only if you value your time.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I’m fairly sure the Spirit Awards will come up with a reason to nominate this. They love to make their voters sit through pretentious, boring crap-- Especially when it’s star-studded with people who might show up to sit in their award show audience, thereby raising their award’s awareness, relevance and legitimacy.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: It’s hard to appreciate the acting, when you’re mad at the actors for picking this movie. Clearly they all wanted to show-off their Bob Dylan impersonations. Some are better than others, but unfortunately you can see most of them working.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Todd Haynes knows his way around a camera. He proves that he knows how to create every look under the sun in this incohesive jumbled mess of a movie, which jumps around incomprehensibly between black and white parts, modern parts, grainy old film parts, faux-Documentary parts, and many, many more.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: This is a story that stayed inside the writer’s heads. I could watch it nine more times, and get stoned, and psychoanalyze its deep meaning, but I don’t want to.

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