Not Fade Away (Blu-ray +Digital Copy +UltraViolet) (2012)

"Not Fade Away" (2012 release; 112 min.) is the debut feature film from writer-director David "The Sopranos" Chase. The story is very loosely based on Chase's days of growing up in New Jersey in the early 1960s, with Douglas (played by John Magaro) standing in for Chase. The movie starts with a retelling of the infamous meeting between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on a train in the early 60s, and not long thereafter we see the Stones appear on TV and Douglas and his friends want to start a band "like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles". The voice over is from Douglas' sister, informing us she is going to tell "the story of this band nobody has ever heard off". There are many side stories and characters in the movie, none more so than Douglas' dad, played by James "Tony Soprano" Gandolfini, which in my opinion was very risky: how can you see this man play yet another Italian patriach with an anger problem and not think Tony Soprano?

But in the end the story line is secondary to the music and the time capsule of the 60s that you find in every frame of this movie. The movie soundtrack was supervised by Steven Van Zandt, yes, that Steven Van Zandt, and he does an incredible job not only compiling a ton of great 60s music (and thankfully not always the same ol' same ol' standards), but the band Douglas and his friends are putting together do some nice tunes as well. This movie is eye-candy from start to finish, I couldn't stop marveling at the incredible amount of details that went into framing this movie visually. Chase's writing is pretty crisp throughout the movie. At one point the band is close to signing and their would-be manager tells them that for the next 6 months they should play 7 days a week, 2 sets a night, at every and any possible bar in New York. One of the guys in the band protests and says "we can't do that, our music is art, it would demystify our music for our fans". To which the would-be manager answers: "Music is a business. The Beatles played for 2 years in Hamburg, Germany in strip joints." End of discussion, ha!

It is clear that this movie is a labor of love for David Chase, and at that it succeeds entirely. While the story line is lacking a major dramatic undercurrent, there is plenty enough other things that kept my interest in the movie from start to finish. In the end, it is all about the music in this movie, so if you are not really into music (or 60s music to be precize), save yourself the trouble. But if you are, like me, a huge music fan, this movie will pretty much delight from start to finish. For those interested, the movie's soundtrack is available separately and brings a great collection of 26 songs from that era.

I saw this film on the big screen last year at the Philadelphia Film Festival and was looking forward to seeing it on home video and to see what bonus features would be added. There's so much music both played by the actors as characters in the film, and as snippets of licensed music from the 1962-68 time period, that I sometimes lost track of the story while concentrating on the great music selected, by the way, by Executive Producer Steven Van Zandt (of the E Street Band). (When I saw in the theater I kept asking myself what the licensing fees must have been to release this film.)

As you will learn from the Bonus features on the Blu-ray (no bonuses on the standard DVD) this film was germinating in the mind of writer/director David Chase from the moment his HBO series "The Sopranos" ended. It took a while for him to say what he wanted. Not to give any "spoilers" (but I think you will find it helpful), Chase chose ACTORS , not musicians, to play the roles of members of the band (rather than choosing musicians and teaching them to act), and gave them four weeks of full-day music lessons before even starting the shoot.

The cast is basically unknowns except for James Gandolfini . I found I could relate to the actors who I had no previous image of, then I could Gandolfini, who still looks and sounds like Tony Soprano.

Chase chose to set the film in the years between 1962 and 1968, a time frame that had more changes in pop music styles (and fashion too!) than at any other time in music history. Anyone who was at least eight years old in 1962 will easily relate to this film.

As I noted above there are bonuses on the BD version. First comes a three-part "Making of" doc titled "The Basement Tapes". The running time is 33 minutes and gives a good feeling for why Chase chose to make it. The next bonus is called "Building The Band" but it really adds nothing in its three-minute length that wasn't covered in the Basement Tapes featurette (and some of the interviews are repeated). Lastly there are four "deleted scenes" (actually only part of the scenes shown were deleted) which has a total time of about five minutes.

If you saw this in the theaters and liked it, it's worth re-watching on disc. If you collect rock records of the 1960s and you haven't seen the film I think you'll enjoy it. I did!

I hope that you found this review both informative and helpful.

Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

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I really enjoyed this film. Loved how the events of the time didn't overshadow the main character's focus on his dream: becoming a rock star. Fantastic performances from the lead (I felt like I knew Douglas in high school -he was that guy who was suddenly cool because he was on stage) and surely all the supporting characters. Another amazing performance by James Gandolfini, who is perfect in this role. His wife, played by Molly Price, is so spot-on bitter and harsh, it's hard to believe she was acting.

Loved it.

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Some movies I just watch for the entertainment. This movie is one I decided to buy after I saw it. If you did not grow up in the sixties (ages 13-19)you may not capture the essense of the movie. Not only in New Jersey but all over America there was a boom of bands forming in garages, basements, and so on. I don't critique the acting or the actors, I see the movie for what it is. Telling the history of an outcoming of a generation of hopefuls. Remember the Sir Douglas Quintet? Well they formed in the southside of San Antonio, Texas where Doug Sahm was from (yes he spoke spanish). My older brother played sax on a band (the Rocking Dukes) never made it big, but they practiced and played in neighborhood bars, small clubs. The American music fiber spread from this era, and it still exists to this day.

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I had high, very high, expectations for this movie, depicting the rise and fall of a Rolling Stones-influenced garage band from New Jersey. David Chase are I are both Jersey kids; are more-or-less the same age (he is 67; I am 63) and had some of the same experiences. I sat down to watch this flick, expecting to be pulled through an earlier part of my life.

The beginning of the film set the stage in a fabulous manner, with the imagined meeting of Mick and Keith on a train heading to school. (As a side note: when in the world will someone film a similar event of Lennon and McCartney?) A voice-over by the sister of the stories protagonist informs us that while almost everyone knows how that story goes; a similar one involving her brother Doug is known to virtually no one. The very obvious implication here is that her brother's band was not a success.

With that thought in mind we are allowed to observe the life of the band for the rest of its existence. Through this part of the film, we have the archetypical age band story. We watch the members fumble with their instruments, aping what they see and hear of their heroes. Gradually, competency occurs, amidst personal changes. Finally, the band stabilizes with five members who are capable of performing live and being appreciated by others. Conflict remains in the form of a battle for the lead singer role, and while a truce holds for a while, the loser is eventually forced from the band. Unfortunately, this isn't the end of the band's problems. Two members separately sow the seeds that eventually lead to the demise of the band. One member won't do shows outside the local area, citing loyalty to friends. The other a marvelous example of gutless backstabbing paints everything as a plot to parry his cowardice and continuously poisons his bandmates with accusation and innuendo. This reaches a climax when the band cannot agree to move to New York City as part of "paying its dues."

With the band in disarray, our hero elects to decamp to California with his girlfriend. When last we see of his bandmates, they are standing outside the same pizza place where they have stood all their lives and likely always will.

California is, of course, a disaster as the only reason to go lies in an attempt to escape reality (a dying father in a modestly dysfunctional family and the collapse of his dream with the band) and to follow his girlfriend. Sun and surf do not provide the solution either artistically or emotionally. Mistrust real and imagined leads to his wandering the streets of LA, seeking a ride to who knows where. The trek halts briefly outside a music store, where our hero, after viewing the instruments, has a smile come to his face. In the background, music can now be heard. The song is `Roadrunner,' though not the song of that name by Junior Walker & the All Stars, not an earlier sone by Bo Diddley. Instead it is the paean to the open road and the redemptive quality of rock `n' roll written by Jonathan Richman in 1972. But, to skew time and space even more, it's the Sex Pistols version from 1977. So, with music of the future behind him, Doug starts walking again, though this time it seems to be with a purpose. We are left alone in the middle of the street briefly, until his sister appears in the frame. She tells a story about a term paper she wrote about the United States providing two things: nuclear war and rock `n' roll; with the question being, which one will win. She begins to walk away, stops to look over her shoulder at us, smiles and then begins to dance.

Clearly, this isn't `That Thing You Do.' Neither is it `Almost Famous;' nor `Light of Day,' to name three films while not having necessarily happy endings, at least had resolutions of sorts. When it first ended, I thought as I had several times during the film that it was another of those pointless films that seem jump into a story and out of it with no apparent conclusion. But, as time passed my view of the film has changed and probably will continue to do so.

Still, let me start with a weakness in the film about which I don't think my views will change. There's a lot going on in this film as relates to the characters. I believe that Mr. Chase a creature of television, where multiple episodes and seasons allow for leisurely character development presented us with complex characters but no roadmap to understanding them. I think having to decide what you thought were characters' motivations became so burdensome, it made thinking about the moving as a whole harder to do.

At the same time, I feel this film is an incredibly accurate portrayal of the 1960s culture and the cataclysmic effects music had on that generation of kids. It also exposed the overwhelming truth that most of what one thinks and says and does takes place in a swirl of incomplete and distracting information. It's not like `That Thing You Do,' where the families are happy or non-existent. People get sick, people lose jobs; your friends let you and/or you let them down. In short s*** happens and life goes on. In the end, I guess, we all have to learn that to paraphrase John Lennon life is what happens while you're planning other things. In the end, it is a movie more about life than it is about music. However, for many of us Mr. Chase included the two are intertwined.

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