Detroit Rock City
The history of rock n roll was considered to be a glorious period for at least the first 30 years since the genre’s inception, spawning various subgenres and the bands who rocked out under each one in their own style, and no genre was probably more beloved than that of heavy metal with its loud music and even louder costumes, along with the theatricality that made attending live performances into almost a communal event. There can be little doubt that the founding fathers of the subgenre (along with Alice Cooper) was none other than KISS, whose over the top stage antics made them (along with Cooper) the targets of scorn from conservative groups who considered their music to be downright satanic. But the joke was really on them, as KISS (as well as Cooper) were just merely exploiting the concept of how listening, enjoying, and performing rock music was actually more FUN than anything else, and in 20/20 hindsight both they and Cooper’s music have stood the test of time by seeming even more INNOCENT than people originally took them for, and at times even quite perceptive in their lyrics. Moreso, it can ironically now be said that Cooper, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons themselves are actually much more conservative than many of their fellow musicians in their own ways of thinking (a fact that kept Cooper out of The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame for a long time undeservedly) even as they all still continue to outdraw younger bands on a consistently regular basis whenever they go out on tour. But strangely enough, that’s where the similiarities end, as Cooper continued on from the 1970s continually reinventing himself and his musical style, still putting out plenty of new quality material to this day, whereas KISS built themselves up a sizable catalog of classic rock songs during the 70s which for the most part they’ve made very little variations on and remains their bread and butter, so while their live concerts still remain the best in the business to this day, the songs themselves mostly remain the same as to what they were performing 30 years ago, partly because the songs themselves are GREAT (and Cooper no doubt also still knows the value of his old school stuff), but also because most of them have a timeless value in their own way, seemingly embodying the innocent yet hard partying spirit of the hard rock / heavy metal subgenre itself as well as the simple concepts and values of freedom, fun, and fornication. Strange then, that it would not be until 1999 that the band’s ultimate cinematic portrayal would be produced (notwithstanding such 70s oddities like KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park), with subversive cult director Adam Rifkin at the helm and Gene Simmons himself serving as a producer on the project, with the setting being 1978 in an atmosphere much more different than Dazed And Confused. The plot concerns four stoned out metalhead teens (who all appear to be the product of either broken homes and / or being raised by single parents) who have formed their own little KISS tribute band as a way of paying homage to their rock heroes. Even better, they are looking forward to an upcoming road trip to Detroit in order to see the band itself live in concert. Unfortunately, one of the members’ mother (a wacked out, chain smoking Bible Thumper) has found the tickets for her son to see this “satanic” band and winds up burning all four of them (lacking the decency to even realize that she is also punishing the other three as well in doing so), so the movie then turns into the four of them heading up to Detroit anyway with the intention of doing “whatever it takes” to get into the show, and once they arrive in Detroit itself (the second half of the movie) they all go their separate ways in order to figure out schemes to obtain new tickets as the film cuts back and forth showing each of their efforts to do so. Our four main stars here include Edward Furlong (a legitimately talented and funny young actor at the time who took a lot of shit from people in his prime but actually had plenty of great movies and screen moments under his belt besides just being John Connor before his own personal demons took him down) as Hawk, lead singer of the band who desperately enters an amateur male stripper contest in order to win the money to buy a ticket from the scalper across the street (complete with a pep talk from the actual scalper himself to an uncertain Furlong) where he hooks up with a classy older lady (Shannon Tweed, real life “partner” to Gene Simmons) and hilariously vomits on stage due to nervousness over dancing in front of people and that, along with him beating up a disco loving Guido earlier in the film to the strains of Iron Man all goes to show what a unique yet charismatic presence Furlong had and may have once again if he ever manages to straighten out. Then there’s Giuseppe Andrews as Lex, whose mother’s car is immediately stolen upon arrival in Detroit and who actually manages to get backstage and sneak around while being chased by concert security and even finds a way to both retrieve his car and save a disco loving chick (Natasha Lyonne) that they had picked up en route. Next up is James DeBello as Trip, with long hair that makes him look like Jason Mewes (only twice as funny) and whose well thought out master plan is to beat somebody up and steal their hard earned ticket, getting more than he bargained for when he picks on a little kid (in full KISS makeup) only to have to deal both with his much bigger older brother along with the fact that the kid himself is a rather demonic, conniving little bastard in his own right. And last (and certainly least) there is Sam Huntington as Jam, the band’s drummer (and son of The Bible Thumper mother) who comes across as being your typical wanna be ultra sensitive type but is just quite frankly the weakest of the bunch, one who doesn’t even seem to fit in or gel at all with his bandmates (even when they’re all together and happy) and whose relationship with his super religious mother (Lin Shaye) comes across as being rather creepy and even somewhat co dependent on his own part, so much so that when she burns the tickets early on due almost entirely to his own passive weakness, one seriously starts to wonder if whether or not maybe Hawk, Lex, and Trip should just cut this weak link loose from their group (and maybe beat his ass too) instead of just continuing to allow him to drag the rest of them down to his own private Hell. Moreso, Huntington himself as an actor carries an affected, almost effeminate onscreen presence to the point of being repellent and somehow he also seems to find a way to take such a sensitive, introverted character and turn him into a tour de force of overacting. But at least his portions of the film do take a sharp, pointed (and very funny) jab at the hypocrises of religious types and show why it’s much better to just be your own man with your own Bible. It’s nice to see that the movie takes a page from Dazed And Confused in realistically depicting teenagers for what they are in terms of swearing and drug use (even if maybe the characters are a little more broadly drawn than they were in Richard Linklater’s classic), but others have felt that the lukewarm box office performance of what is essentially a “KISS promotional piece” may have been due to not going for a lighter PG-13 rating instead of the dreaded R, but then there is no doubt in that case the movie would have rang very false (something that it is certainly NOT), as its greatest overall quality would have to be just its pure authenticity to almost EVERYTHING related to the late 70s, including a grandiose opening credits sequence (one of the best of its kind ever) which seems to give a quick shoutout to almost every single pop culture icon of the era, along with the rapidly paced second half cutting back and forth between all four characters on their separate journeys, to the amazingly rockin soundtrack of music from that era (not just KISS), to the story’s resolution which not only makes perfect sense and is satisfying but is pretty damn funny as well. Overall, a fine tribute to the true spirit of rock n roll, as well as to one of the greatest bands when it came to defining it…
9/10