Written by songwriter Glen Ballard (Michael Jackson - "Man in the Mirror", Alanis Morisette - "You Oughta Know", dozens of other hits ) and featuring bit parts by Terrence Trent D'Arby & Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, CLUBLAND immediately carries an air of authenticity as only a rock'n'roll film made by musicians can do.
Throw into the mix the incomparable Lori Petty (remember Tank Girl??) and newcomer Jimmy Tuckett who looks like a young Michael Hutchence from INXS and sings like a soulful Kurt Cobain, and you've got even more worth seeing.
The story is gritty yet polished, violent yet moral, disturbing yet inspiring. In short, this film is as diverse as the musical styles on the soundtrack (grunge, punk, thrash, trance, rock, acoustic), so you need to take everything as it comes in order to enjoy it. If you're a musician, music lover or groupie I'm guessing you have a broad taste in music, and the songs in this movie are undoubtedly good. As an added bonus, the actors look like they know how to play (if you're like me, you probably hate it when the actors can't even hold a guitar, let alone make a convincing performance).
The vibe is pretty intense, focusing on the moral dilemmas of being a successful musician, hitting on themes of sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, betrayal, selling out, and of course the #1 theme of being a musician: being dirt poor (which, oddly, most r'n'r movies miss). It doesn't have much comedy unless you count the outrageously awesome performance of Lori Petty as the coked out, spaced out, angsty punk chick. Or Steven Tyler with his 1 line "Got a problem here." LOL
If you're on the lookout for entertaining rock movies, don't miss CLUBLAND. Other undiscovered gems worth seeing are: GARAGE DAYS (a stylish, surreal rock comedy from the director of THE CROW), the excellent film SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS (about a paralyzed rockstar, written by and starring a man who is a paraplegic in real life), and for comedy don't miss MUSIC & LYRICS (for the 80s pop crowd) and THE ROCKER (for the 80s metal crowd. And it should go without saying, the greatest rock films ever are SPINAL TAP and EDDIE & THE CRUISERS. Rock on \m/
