Not Fade Away (2012)

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I am not exaggerating, when i say this movie disappointed even my lowest expectations. And fair enough they were really low, having read some reviews, since the movie came out earlier in the US (I'm from Germany). During the whole film there's not tje slightest bit of tension, not even a real story... I sat through the whole "film" and don't even remember the protagonists name. I neither see what the film was trying to tell, nor do i know how i lasted till the end. This weird row of pictures let me regret every cent i spend on this movie. I write this in the immediate disappointment after the movie but, seriously, save your money on this.'Nuff said.

The recent film Not Fade Away, is both the biography of David Chase, the film director who created the Sopranos and, in its way, a biography of the Rolling Stones' music and the American Black Blues and Race tunes that influenced the group in the first place, before they were distracted into becoming the bad boy alternative band to the cozy, family-friendly, mop top Beatles, writing their own songs instead of covering old black blues songs as they had originally intended to do. The first Stones record "Come On", a cover of an old Chuck Berry tune, was released 50 years ago last Friday (6-7-63) in the UK only. ABC News somehow gave the impression last week that the first Stones song was Not Fade Away, a Buddy Holly B-Side, that became the ironic title of Chase's biopic about his transformation from a talented Jersey Stones Wannabe band member to creator and director of TV's the Sopranos. The opening scene of the movie Not Fade Away features a black and white meeting between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on a train bound for London in 1962. The two young men had lived in the same provincial town and gone to the same school earlier, until Jagger moved away. Within two years this chance meeting had evolved into the Rolling Stones under the management of a kid so young, he had to have his mother sign the band's contracts. I had listened to Keith Richards' biography "Life" (2010) which had explored the evolution of the Stones and their music, and, as I watched Not Fade Away, I realized Chase's movie was recasting what Richards had written about the Stones' music, into his own biography about his late high school entry into being a member of a band on the Jersey Shore. Chase's Jersey band plays 'wannabe' music so well, you ask yourself why they didn't rocket instantly to the top. The first time you see Chase's band performing, they're doing a version of the Chantays' Pipeline so expertly, they might just as well BE THE CHANTAYS! The musical part of Not Fade Away is extraordinary. The overlay of Stones music and Stones biography is a major part of Chase's film. But the screenplay, about a fledgling rock n' roll band and Chase's horrific parents, who are both monstrous and funny at the same time, is the best screenplay I've seen since Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. There isn't a wrong word or phrase in it. Chase would segue between the Jersey Band's Not Fade Away and its drum rhythm back beat lifted entirely by Buddy Holly first and the Stones later, from Bo Diddley's signature song Bo Diddley, showing original black and white Dick Clark footage of Diddley performing it. Periodically, the action would move to Chase's family kitchen where the major showdowns between Chase and his father (James Ghandolfini) take place. Usually, Chase's very rational younger sister defends her brother, while castigating Pop for calling black people 'niggers' and gay people 'fags.' The mother, always ironing while wearing a plastic hair net over her curlers and a terrible light blue housecoat, would not interfere except to occasionally shriek about nightmares she had, like the one with a black man trying to break into the house at night. The movie is reminiscent of the 'kitchen sink' social realism plays in England written by John Osborne, Terence Rattigan and, later, Harold Pinter, beginning in the 50s. Noel Coward and others had ragged and mocked the lower classes in plays up until then, never giving a voice to the lower classes in Britain until the Labor Party began its long tenure in England after the war. Chase gets involved with the daughter of a Manhattan Ad Agency Account executive, the same fascinating dolt who played Louise's hapless, idiotic husband back home in 1992's Thelma and Louise. Like the sister of the Chase character, she and her sister provide another story of children revolting from the teachings of their idiotic 'greatest generation' parents. The girlfriend, who gives a wonderful performance, attacks her father and his six car garage, when he puts her sister in the nut house for voicing some radical then, tame now, thoughts about politics during the mad house sixties. Dad one ups her somehow in a discussion that begins with him defending Buick's 'Pitch Dynaflow' automatic transmission of then current TV advertising, by coming back with something like this: "Well, if that's the way you see it,that's fine, MRS. ALLAN GINSBERG!" Chase's biopic, is a mix of comedy and drama at the same time. They call it Dramady. If you haven't seen this one yet, you'd better.

It's no great spoiler to say that NOT FADE AWAY shows, in terms that are both cynical and sentimental but above all, simply convincing, why the group formed by Douglas, Eugene, and company DID fade away--and, like many would-be successes, it wasn't due to lack of drive or talent.Very good filming, script, and acting/characterization. A large cast for a film of this sort--it sometimes becomes difficult to remember who's who. NOT FADE AWAY captures the 60s quite well, showing how the decade of phonograph records and the Vietnam War was different but still quite the same as our own era. A lot of realistically interesting things happen even though there is very little in the way of serious tension and surprises. The way the whole story is framed as a collegiate essay by the lead singer's younger sister is an interesting device. Fine ending that left me with an initial "Huh?" feeling but after taking a few seconds to sink in, could not have made the story's point more clearly.

just finished up watching this growing up in the sixties, and rock and roll movie. for the earliest of the Baby Boomers, this is the movie for you, and the music will rock your soul. A teenage band, with inspirations maybe a little too optimistic. With a top notch cast, and great story telling, this was indeed entertaining and very realistic, since I was in a little band back then too. James Gandolfini is great as a pretty typical sixties Father, coping with everyday problems and a pretty wacky Wife. The teenagers are very realistic, and you could tell it was written pretty much biographical. It works for me. Highly recommended especially to us Boomers.