Not Fade Away Review

[Westside Steve]

Not Fade Away

Paramount Vantage

R 112 min

I wouldn't have taken notice of NOT FADE AWAY unless I'd seen the blurb stating that it’s a coming of age films about a minor league rock and roll band in the sixties, and not even minor league to the level that the Wonders were in THAT THING YOU DO. For the hundreds of upstart bands who get so much as one record made there are literally thousands who never make it out of the basement, garage or the neighborhood. This film deals with the latter

I suppose the emotions and conflicts shown here are similar in any microcosm of young life.

Even though these guys were 6 or 7 years apart from my own roots, (and 6 or 7 years is an eternity in popular music) many of the personal relationships are ageless.

There's the alpha male struggle concerning who will be the one to front the band. There's the friction caused by the girl who has had relationships with other members of the band. There are musicians anxious to take a gamble and those who constantly hesitate, blue collar preppy rich poor all bound together under the banner of rock and roll. The brutal realization by the self-styled artist that there is a reason it's called the music business.

In one of the story lines father James Gandolfini tries to bridge the gap between him and his son. Yes dad hates the haircut, hates the clothing, hates the music but is beginning to face the fact that his son will soon be whatever amounts to a patriarch. He will speak to his son as he might to a priest at confession which reminds me how daunting the idea is that someday each boy will someday be the man of the family..

 

I admit that I probably liked it more because I could relate to a lot of the reality of my own experience

Possibly one of the reasons this strikes such a chord with those who have been in the music business at any level is that the producer is Steve Van Zandt, guitar player for Bruce Springsteen and Jersey legend.

A-

WSS

 

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