Rock of Ages

Converting a performance from stage to screen is not by any means uncommon, but that does not mean it’s easy nor is it always successful.  Such is the case with Rock of Ages. Not having seen the Broadway version I cannot comment on the quality of the show, but there’s no way it could be as bad as the movie translation.  When watching something on Broadway, the viewer allows certain suspensions of disbelief that moviegoers do not.  From the first frames when Sherri Christian (Julianne Hough), our lead protagonist, is sitting on the bus escaping her podunk life in Oklahoma to chase her dreams to Hollywood the needed suspension of disbelief is just too great.

The story is this: a lonely, small town girl  goes on a journey (see what I did there?) to Hollywood to explore her dream of being a singer after her grandmother tells her she has a great voice.  In the first moments of getting off the bus in what was then grungy 1980s LA she both gets mugged of suitcase filled with her most prizes possessions – her records (apparently moving cross country with actual clothing is not what was done back then) and she meets Drew (Diego Boneta), the bartender/rock star wannabe that will become the love of her life.  Drew works at The Bourbon Room, a legendary (code: grungy) bar that hosts rock icons and is preparing for the arrival of legendary (code: grungy) rock icon, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).  Jaxx is a whisky-infused, sex crazed and definitely aging rock star who still causes throngs of girls to faint at the mere sight of him.  Bourbon Room owner Dennis (Alec Baldwin) and his partner Lonny (Russell Brand) are relying on this concert to save the bar from bankruptcy and at the same time right wing, anti-fun politicians want to shut it down for being a harbinger of youth corruption. 

Rock of Ages has all the hallmarks of a run of the mill light fare musical romp/romantic comedy show.  It doesn’t offer anything really new or exciting to audiences and the filmmakers, namely director Adam Shankman was so lazy in adapting it from the stage to screen that you don’t need a lot of creativity to imagine how the original stage production was performed.

All that being said, Rock of Ages doesn’t claim to be a piece of cinematic marvel.  It’s campy and silly and it owns it, which almost makes the ridiculousness ok.  You’re immediately thrown into the 80s rock aesthetic from the hair and music to the clothing to the set design.  Honestly, that’s what I was mostly drawn to with this movie.  I wanted to all things 80s and in that regard the movie definitely delivered.  I was very pleasantly surprised by Tom Cruise’s performance – he totally pulls off the aging rock star image.  And (while I’m sure it was enhanced in post-production), he can actually sing.  The music was excellent – but that’s not surprising as they were all 80s-standards and rock classics.  I wanted to sing along and clap at the end of the big numbers, as I’m sure happened in the stage production, but alas, movies goers just don’t do that so I was left mouthing the words and sitting on my hands at the ends of the performances.

What I think was the most interesting thing about Rock of Ages was that it is the latest in a growing list of movies and TV shows which are curating our favorite songs for audiences.  Along with Glee, the upcoming Battlefield America, Pitch Perfect and not to mention musical remakes like Footloose old favorites from the original iterations are revamped in neat, easy to digest packages.  In a sense, television and film are putting together what feels like a modern day mix tape.  In today’s internet age, videos, songs, article, and pictures get shared in an instant across oceans.  However, through this, one of the most sacred sharing devices has been lost: the mix tape.  Mix tapes were given to friends, crushes, and family as a sign of affection and wanting to share something that was important to the person who spent painstaking hours waiting for songs to come on the radio and hitting “record” on their boom boxes.  Sometimes, if you were lucky enough to have the song on a preexisting tape you could record straight from there.  But in any case if someone gave you a mix tape it meant you were special to him or her and they wanted to share something sacred to them.  While the tape itself had meaning, the songs themselves were important as well.  Emotions and feelings of nostalgia are evoked by both the idea of curating songs and the songs themselves - and show runners and filmmakers know this.  By giving us music packaged in this way and as plot devices, audiences are naturally drawn to the vehicle in which they are being presented.  The music is likely the main (if not only) reason for any success of this movie.  The plot is barely existent, the acting is stilted and even the singing is generally weak but the songs are great, fun and familiar and people want fun and familiar.  Without them there’s no way it would have earned a respectable $29 million in under 2 weeks.   

There’s also something to be said about the draw that the 1980s has for people of a certain generation.  People like me, for instance, who were really children of the 1990s and only caught the end of the 1980s can still appreciate and nostalgize that era and for people who were actually teenagers in the 1980s and long for the time of their youth.  Nostalgia and a longing for the past when one can say “the good old days” is a powerful force and helps drive revenue, even if they weren’t really such good old days.  It is also for that reason that Rock of Ages, no matter how “bad” of a movie it is, had a built in audience base of people who will go see anything that can make them feel like they’re either reliving or reconnecting to their pasts.

The Muppets

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This Muppets movie, the first big screen feature film since 1999’s Muppets in Space, hit exactly the tone it should have. With the right amount of irreverentness, sarcasm and nostalgia, this movie comments on what it thinks we might have lost as a society, yet also allows for hope to creep in as well.

The story is about Gary (Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the movie), a simple and happy guy from Smalltown, USA who wants nothing more than to make his brother Walter happy. Walter has always been different from the rest of his family and a bit of a social outcast, but when he discovers the Muppets as a child he finds people just like him. (You see, Walter is a Muppet too.) So when Gary invites Walter along on his trip to LA with Mary, his long-time girlfriend (Amy Adams, perfectly casted in this sweet and charming role) so he can visit the Muppets studios and take a tour of the grounds, he’s absolutely elated.

What Walter finds when he arrives at the studios, however, is nothing like he expected. Abandoned, decrepit and all but forgotten, this once magical place of escapism and happiness now lays barren. While exploring Kermit’s office, Walter overhears a plot being hatched by the evil Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) who plans to level the studio to drill for oil. Tracking down Kermit the Frog, they decide the only way to stop Richman is to hold a Muppets variety show which will raise enough money to save the studio. The Muppets have been out of touch with one another for some time so along with Gary, Walter and Mary, Kermit sets out to regroup with his old friends and put on a show.

Peppered with tongue-in-cheek self-referentialisms and a strong awareness of its audience as both longtime and new fans, The Muppets, is adept at entertaining all groups of audiences who would enter the theater. From the one hand, Walter’s discovery of a group which is just like him and accepts him for who he is is perfect for this generation of kids who are dealing with issues of bullying and an overwhelming state of alienation. This is the younger generation who has not necessarily grown up on the Muppets but might have an idea of who they are just based on their general presence in popular culture. Walter has always been different and while he’s been able to find comfort in watching the Muppets through his TV screen, he only fully comes into his own and finds his true self once he has the opportunity to interact with them and create interpersonal connections and ultimately help them as well. This is interesting as so many of our interactions these days are done through a computer or smart phone screen and we often neglect the significance of interacting with people directly.

Secondly, the other group that this movie was made for and, not to mention, made by, are those of us who grew up on the Muppets. Spanning the 70s, 80s, and 90s, these furry creatures captured the hearts of thousands of Gen-Xers, Gen-Yers, and Millennials be it through the original show, movies, or even the Muppet Babies cartoon show.  They've popped up in youtube videos, in cameos on SNL and countless other occurrences.  It's no wonder that even those of us who might not have been huge fans of the originals (I know, blasphemy.  Sorry.), would not only want to see this movie but would hope for it to offer us a positive connection with our childhood.  Further, a lot of our pop-culture has roots in all things Muppet as now that those raised on this strong cultural force are responsible for creating the next generation of pop-culture. The fact that Segel was so passionate about bringing this project to fruition because he grew up as a fan of the show is telling of the power of the brand.

Further, as much as the movie was about Walter finding himself, it was also about Gary realizing what was truly important to him: making a life with Mary. Personally, one thing I got out of the film was that it reminded me of a time where priorities were less complicated. Where you knew what was right and wrong, in other words, childhood. Not to say we should completely regress to when we were kids, there's obviously a lot to be said about growing up, but maybe take a lesson from what was so much simpler back then and put our priorities into the right order.

The movie had me smiling from the first frame, bringing me back to when I used to watch the movies and TV shows. I loved the innocence of the narrative, the song and dance numbers and the cameos! This time of year the movies are all dark and challenging and vying for awards, so if you’re looking for some light fun, go see The Muppets. Leave all cynicism as the door, there’s no room for it in this movie. And if you can do that, you’ll enjoy enjoy yourself and the film.