Absolute Beginners: 20+ 80s films starring musicians

How do we feel about Streets of Fire?

Facets is not sending stuff in order from my queue! [grumble]

Tapeheads (1988)

Synopsis: After losing their jobs as security guards, best friends Ivan (John Cusack) and Josh (Tim Robbins) start a music video production company called "Video Aces". When they meet their childhood heroes, 1970s soul duo Swanky Modes (Sam Moore and Junior Walker), Ivan and Josh concoct a scheme to give them a new audience by hijacking a Menudo concert, getting them to perform in Menudo's place, and broadcasting it live across the country on a television satellite hook-up.

How this film entered my consciousness: I feel like they used to show this on Comedy Central, but somehow I never caught it and I definitely never realized that it starred Tim Robbins and John Cusack. I was just reading Mike Nesmith's autobiography and it sounded super intriguing: soundtrack by Fishbone, starring Junior Walker, who performed one of my favorite songs of all time and a bunch of other bangers. Per Wikipedia: notable appearances in the film include Mike Nesmith, Mary Crosby, of the nighttime soap opera Dallas; character actors Clu Gulager and Doug McClure; footballer Lyle Alzado; 1960s icon Connie Stevens; Soul Train host Don Cornelius; singer Courtney Love; Navasota singer King Cotton; original "Human Beat-Box" Doug E. Fresh; ska-punk band Fishbone (who also perform the incidental score) as "Ranchbone"; The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church singer Stiv Bators; Ted Nugent; "Weird Al" Yankovic; and Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, in a cameo as an FBI agent. Also Jessica Walter is in this! I'm sold.

Film highlights:

1. Weird Al's cameo

2. Goddamn, John Cusack was a SNACK in '88. Hes the best-lit thing in the whole movie.

3. Um...Robbins & Cusack seem to be having a lot of fun with their dorky synchronized Motown dancing..?

Film lowlights:

1. The screenplay and direction are borderline incoherent, which doesn't help the comedy. Absurdity is only funny in a world of normal behavior. If nobody acts normal, none of the funny stuff lands. There are a few genuine chuckles in this movie, but most of the time I was puzzled. 

2.  The downright meta product placement for Miller High Life. It's one of the earliest examples of product placement I've ever seen on film. 

3. Holy shit, Courtney Love's cameo.

Soundtrack highlights: 

1. The Swanky Modes (Junior Walker & Sam Moore of Sam & Dave) performing "Audience for My Pain". It makes me wish they had a proper cinematic showcase, like the artists in The Blues Brothers. I suppose that was the intention at some point, but perhaps the studio wanted something more trendy and stuffed in a bunch of wacky subplots instead.  

2. Devo's euro-synth parody: "Baby Doll" - The video they film for it is pretty genius too. 

3. Fishbone's take on country: "Slow Bus A-Movin' (Howard's Beach Party)" - I wish we got to see more of it in the movie. 

Soundtrack lowlights: The Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles rap jingle and reprise, though I admire its audacity. The Spanish version isn't too shabby either. 

How much coke were these people on? Oh, a fuckton, I'm sure. 

Is it worth your time? I'll update if I get around to listening to the commentary, but my impression is that this movie got green-lit as 'the blues brothers with hot young leading men' (Cusack & Robbins' careers were about to blow up). Unfortunately, it's a trainwreck. Total misfire. It's nowhere near as fun as it sounds; in fact, it barely held my attention. 

EDIT - some more things I learned from the DVD commentary: Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Vanilla Sky) was the production designer and Nigel Harrison of Blondie was the music supervisor. I missed a cameo from Coati Mundi. Mike Nesmith's lilting Texas accent is still damn charming. 

Does it finally get to the bottom of those rumours about it not even being his hat?

And here's another one! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Midnight_(film)

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Synopsis: Directed by Nagisa Oshima, the film deals with the relationships among four men in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War — Major Jack Celliers (Bowie), a rebellious British officer with a guilty secret from his youth; Captain Yonoi (Sakamoto), the young camp commandant; Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence (Conti), another British officer who has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently; and Sergeant Hara (Kitano), who is seemingly brutal and yet humane in some ways and with whom Lawrence develops an unlikely friendship.

How this film entered my consciousness: I'm a Bowie fan. I'm also a Ryuichi Sakamoto fan. I collect Criterion Collection DVDs. This has been on my list ever since I heard "Forbidden Colours" - the excellent theme song by Sakamoto. 

Film highlights:

1. Takeshi Kitano's performance is just great in this. It's hard to imagine that this is his first film role and that Japanese audiences didn't take him seriously because they only knew him from manzai. 

2. The shot compositions are consistently gorgeous and Sakamoto's soundtrack compliment them well.

 






3. Ryuichi Sakamoto is quite handsome in this - even though his acting is limited.

Film lowlights:

1. The violence is shot in a rather stagey, fake way. This film needs to be much grittier to resonate on a dramatic level. 

2. Despite the beautiful cinematography, the plot is all subtext, which places all the heavy lifting on performances. Unfortunately, Bowie & Sakamoto cannot match the formidible chops of Conti & Kitano. 

3. The flashback to Cellier's backstory is weird and out of place and definitely should have featured a younger actor than Bowie. 

Soundtrack highlights:

1. "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian 



2. All the use of gamelan on the soundtrack. 


3. "Ride, Ride, Ride" is ethereal and ominous





Soundtrack lowlights: None. Unless you want to count some diegetic music like "Rock of Ages" or the 23rd Psalm. This is one of the best cinematic scores of the 80s. 

How much coke were these people on? Drugs are super illegal in Japan, so my guess is none. Bowie in fact might have been in withdrawal during this shoot, which should have helped his performance. 

Is it worth your time? Um...I think so. As an aesthetic experience it's pretty impressive. As a narrative film, not so much. 

We're in for a string of classics, but first let me get this out of the way:

One Trick Pony (1980)

Synopsis: Paul Simon plays Jonah Levin, a once-popular folk-rock musician who hasn't had a hit in ten years, and now opens for bands like the B-52's (Levin's bandmates are played by musicians Steve Gadd, Eric Gale, Tony Levin, and Richard Tee, all of whom similarly backed Simon on One-Trick Pony's soundtrack album). He's trying to record a new album, but faces a number of obstacles, including an indifferent record-company executive (Rip Torn) who's pressuring him to create a hit record with the help of a trendy producer (Lou Reed). Jonah is also trying to restore his relationship with his estranged wife, Marion (Blair Brown), and young son, Matty (Michael Pearlman).

How this film entered my consciousness: I was looking up films for this thread and I stumbled upon this. Considering I never heard of it before, expectations are low.

Film Highlights

1. I like the opening scene, where Simon gets accosted by an ISKON member and responds to "Hari Krishna" with "Harry Chapin"

2. It's downright self-deprecating for Simon to show the B-52s headlining and tearing up the joint after his sweaty (literally), worn-out set of blue collar jazz fusion.

3. In the end, Simon steals the master for his studio-hacked recording and flings the reels down the street. It's probably the most fun and emotionally resonant scene in the film. 

Film Lowlights:

1. Most of Paul Simon's line readings are so flat that everything comes across as a half-assed joke. 

2. Paul Simon having sex. The man is not sexy. In this, his red baseball cap and small stature really make him look like a kid. 

3. The joke about race and dick size seems rather unnecessary.

Soundtrack Highlights:

1. The opening rendition of "Late In the Evening"

2. I like how "Nobody" goes all Grizzly Bear in the middle

3. Sam & Dave doing "Soul Man"

Soundtrack Lowlights:

1. "Ace In the Hole" is basically "Rubber Biscuit" as covered by Fleetwood Mac.

2. I know they agreed to appear in the film, but it's kind of shady to put the Lovin' Spoonful up there as a nostalgia act. 

How much coke were these people on? I think Simon must have saved his stash for the set of Annie Hall

Is it worth your time? No, it's really dull and self-indulgent.

Purple Rain (1980)

Synopsis: The film stars Prince in his acting debut playing "The Kid", a quasi-biographical character. Purple Rain was developed to showcase Prince's talents and the film contains several concert sequences.

How this film entered my consciousness: I was a child in the 80s - way too young to see this in the theater, but old enough to remember all the videos taken from it on MTV. Whenever this comes on VHI, I leave it on - paying no attention to the plot.

Film Highlights

1. TIE: the cinematography and costume design - This movie is shot beautifully and everybody has the coolest clothes. 

 



 




2. Wendy & Lisa! Not only can they act, but their characters are actually interesting. I would love to see a sequel centered on them. It could star Tegan & Sara!

3. Jerome Benton does not get enough credit for stealing every scene he's in, whether he's manning the mirror, teasing Prince for being "so sexy", or cartoonishly tossing an inconvenient ex-lover in a dumpster. 



4. There are a lot of other genuinely funny parts of this movie, like the puppet and Morris Day chatting up Apollonia. 


Film Lowlights:

1. Both the dialogue and lack thereof is bad. As a result, the characterization is about as deep as a three-panel comic strip. It's a shame because there IS a coherent story here about a young artist who doesn't want to make the same mistakes as his parents. The movie actually gets kind of good toward the end, when the Kid restrains himself from attacking Apollonia a second time and comes home to find his father about to shoot himself. 

2. Along with the bad dialogue and lack of exposition, the scenes are super disjointed, with a lot of weird montage to make up for missing scenes/unusable footage. 

3. Prince and Apollonia's courtship is Indian-movie level problematic. No man should ever act the way Prince does toward a woman and no woman should ever act the way Apollonia does either. Ladies, when was the last time you spontaneously stripped naked in the woods? Guys, when was the last time you spontaneously slapped a woman across the room?   


Soundtrack Highlights:

1. The double whammy of "Let's Go Crazy" and "Jungle Love" from the intro. This one rivals The Hunger for great musical intros. 

2. "The Beautiful Ones" - Just a great performance and a good use of music to advance the plot. 

3. "Computer Blue" / "Darling Nikki" - Prince is oiled up and extra-sexy as Mick Ronson to Wendy's Bowie. Underrated tracks, too.

4. "I Would Die for You" is my favorite track on this album


Soundtrack Lowlights:

1. "Sex Shooter" is pretty lame. 

2. I guess "The Bird" is derivative of "Jungle Love", but they're having so much fun! Also I think Psy ripped off their moves a little. 


How much coke were these people on? Pretty sure Prince was clean - being a devout Jehovah's Witness - but I imagine there was a healthy amount of coke, weed, and assorted substances floating about the rest of the cast. 

Is it worth your time? Absolutely. I am proud to know firsthand that there is nothing more entertaining than watching Prince perform. 

Repo Man (1984)

Synopsis: Another Mike Nesmith joint, Repo Man is an American science fiction comedy film written and directed by Alex Cox. The plot concerns a young punk rock enthusiast (Emilio Estevez) in Los Angeles who finds himself partnered with a jaded repossession agent (Harry Dean Stanton) and subsequently caught up in the pursuit for a mysterious car that might be connected to extraterrestrials. Repo Man received widespread acclaim and was considered one of the best films of 1984.

How this film entered my consciousness: If this had come out 10 years later, I would have seen it for sure, but since it came out in '84 as a cult phenomenon, I completely missed out. I never realized it was a comedy until I read Mike Nesmith's book.

Film Highlights

1. Harry Dean Stanton is a great actor and all-around badass, despite coming across as kind of a jerk in the bonus features. To quote Roger Ebert, "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad."

2. The gravity-defying drag race in the reservoir looks super fun.

3. Miller and his scurrilous theories about John Wayne

Film Lowlights:

1. Emilio Estevez is well-cast and definitely looks the part, but he's not a very good actor - vacant, but not in a funny way. 

2. The nasty, sun-drenched brutishness of So-Cal poverty is accurate, but not really pleasant to watch.

3. This movie is not nearly as funny as it could be in the hands of, say, the Coen Brothers. 

Soundtrack Highlights:

1. Iggy Pop's theme

2. All the Plugz' contributions were pretty good, but my favorite is the Morricone-esque"Reel Ten"

3. Burning Sensation's take on "Pablo Picasso"

Soundtrack Lowlights:

Nothing's bad, but a lot of SoCal punk is indistinct and just kind of blurs together.

How much coke were these people on? Coke might be a bit expensive, but there was definite snorting of speed, maybe PCP?

Is it worth your time? Yes, if you're a fan of desert-dry nihilism, like Breaking Bad.

Because I am a completist, I will add it. It doesn't sound as fun as Repo Man, though. 

where is the glorious trainwreck that is Hearts of Fire

Streets of Fire is so dogshit insane, I can't help but love it, and I'm ecstatic that you found it as worth your time as I hoped it would. I think the only thing we'll disagree on is that I absolutely love "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young", maybe because it's so goofily extra.

If I have any beefs with the film, its really just that I felt the actual climactic showdown to be a little dull compared to the epicness of the rest of film, and felt it would have served better as a mid-way fight to build up to a bigger, grander showdown.

Still, it has probably my favorite Bill Paxton performance, random cameos by the Blasters, the most steel-inspired set design ever, and a soundtrack that doesn't know what it is other than from the 80s.