Rock Star

Rock Star
Starring Mark Walberg and Jennifer Aniston
Directed by Stephen Herek

Soon to be released on video and DVD, box office disappointment Rock
Star should now come into its own. This is a film that is bound to play
far better on DVD, in the privacy of one's home, where singing along to
Ratt and Def Leppard is not so embarrassing. Nostalgia for the '80's is
very trendy, but one only wants to go so far in public.
Despite the hairspray and posing, the metal of the 80's was important.
It ruled the radio and MTV. It's heroes and their rags to riches
success stories played a major role in adolescent dreams - dreams of
escaping the drudgery of the 80's economy. If you had the talent, the
fast cars, fast guitars and fast women could be yours. These things
gave hope to a generation of working class teens who had little to look
forward to. Donna Gains, in her book Teenage Wasteland, called this a
new version of the American dream.
Most of us may be embarrassed now to be reminded of the hair and the
clothes and the attitude we once cherished but see as cheesy now. But
as with all growing pains we had to live through it to be who we are
today. With out the excess of 80's hair bands we may not have found the
soul-searching, soul saving righteousness of 90's grunge.
The hair bands of the 80's produced some of the more vacuous music rock
and roll has known and it was in a severe decline by the end of the
decade with nothing but mangled hip hop pop to replace it. Rock Star,
perhaps without intention, serves as a brilliant historical fiction of
this time.
Mark Walberg and Jennifer Aniston star in this story of a working class
guy whose dreams come true when he is tapped to replace his hero - the
lead singer of fictional metal band Steel Dragon. The timing is
perfect, as he has been ousted from his own Steel Dragon tribute band
for being too much of an obsessive. In glorious illustration of how
rock and roll stories are the same the world over (and are repeated
time after time), Chris and his girlfriend Emily, on their first
introduction to the real Steel Dragon, witness a band argument
involving the ex-lead singer exactly like the one that resulted in
Chris's firing. He had more in common with his hero than he knew.
As all rock stories go, Chris - now called Izzy and sporting a fake
English accent - "lives the dream and lives the life". It may seem
tame, what ends up on the screen, but even the most na?ve cinema goer
will understand the clich? of sex drugs and rock and roll. Stephen
Herek intelligently chose not to rub it in our faces.
What Chris realizes after enjoying the ride for a while, is that he is
on a sinking ship. He learns that his future and the future of rock
will be found in self-exploration and expression not
self-indulgence.
Chris's transformation from metal wanna be to metal god to grungy
crooner playing in a Seattle coffee house traces the beginnings of
Generation X's withdrawal from the Me generation of the 1980's.
Realizing that the dreams they sold us were not all they cracked up to
be we abandoned them. We wanted to be real. How better to be real that
to replace 80's rock music with all it's flamboyance, costumes, and
make-up, with flannel shirts, dirty hair, and corduroys
Rock Star is every rock and roll story you've ever heard. There are
groupies. There is sex. There are drugs. There are even rough looking
rock star wives - with a great cameo from Rod Stewart ex Rachel Hunter.
And best of all there is a fat and leery tour manager with a heart of
gold willing to get anything for any body at any time. Within this
world, Mark Walberg and Jennifer Aniston manage to give us likeable and
believable characters on the forefront of change. The live concerts
look authentic and there is a respect paid to the music that is well
deserved.
As entertaining as all of that is the reason to rent this film is this:
in Rock Star Stephen Herek captured the historical transformation of
music and youth culture that divided the 80's aesthetic from the 90's.
And it is done with subtle perfection.