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#151 - Garage Days
Alex Proyas, 2002
The members of a struggling Sydney rock band get into all sorts of misadventures as they try to get a shot at the big time.
How do you follow up creating not one but two darkly fantastic '90s cult classics? If you're Alex Proyas, you shift gears completely and put out an irreverent comedy about a bunch of ocker punks trying to make a name for themselves in the Sydney music scene. Garage Days does nothing to distinguish itself favourably from other youth sub-culture movies of the same era as it peppers its tale of scrappy rockstar wannabes with anything that stands even the slightest chance of sticking, whether it's dry relationship drama involving an unexpected pregnancy or various characters' experimenting with sex and drugs. Even the film's A-plot is riddled with clichés when it comes to both narrative and comedy, especially as it touts the same old rock-movie rhetoric where the heroic underdogs are fighting the good fight for "real music" against sleazy executives and vapid corporate rockers. The film definitely doesn't play to Proyas' strengths - even his tendency towards bizarre visuals is given the weakest of outlets (such as the depicting of several characters taking accidental acid trips). As a result, Garage Days manages to avoid being anywhere near as fun as it may seem on the outside, playing into a lot of the worst aspects of a) movies about rock music, b) movies about youth sub-cultures and c) Australian comedies. I'd tell you to avoid it, but I don't think that'll be a problem.
Alex Proyas, 2002
The members of a struggling Sydney rock band get into all sorts of misadventures as they try to get a shot at the big time.
How do you follow up creating not one but two darkly fantastic '90s cult classics? If you're Alex Proyas, you shift gears completely and put out an irreverent comedy about a bunch of ocker punks trying to make a name for themselves in the Sydney music scene. Garage Days does nothing to distinguish itself favourably from other youth sub-culture movies of the same era as it peppers its tale of scrappy rockstar wannabes with anything that stands even the slightest chance of sticking, whether it's dry relationship drama involving an unexpected pregnancy or various characters' experimenting with sex and drugs. Even the film's A-plot is riddled with clichés when it comes to both narrative and comedy, especially as it touts the same old rock-movie rhetoric where the heroic underdogs are fighting the good fight for "real music" against sleazy executives and vapid corporate rockers. The film definitely doesn't play to Proyas' strengths - even his tendency towards bizarre visuals is given the weakest of outlets (such as the depicting of several characters taking accidental acid trips). As a result, Garage Days manages to avoid being anywhere near as fun as it may seem on the outside, playing into a lot of the worst aspects of a) movies about rock music, b) movies about youth sub-cultures and c) Australian comedies. I'd tell you to avoid it, but I don't think that'll be a problem.