But we are not on the way to the shopping center, we are going to the Gavin Report seminars at the Westin Hotel in San Francisco, a big schmoozarama of AOR and Top 40 radio and record promotion people. Kenny's at the wheel of a rented Lincoln Continental, Meryl's up front, and me and Joan and seven-year-old Carianne Laguna are scrunching together in the back seat like mom and dad and the kids in the 'burbs, and this is the way it is for Joan a lot of the time, 'cause she lives with Kenny and Meryl and Cari in Rockville Center, Long Island, when she's not on the road. And it became more important to me than politics, more important to me than anything else in this society. “Whoa! And then there was Chuck Berry! And then there was this whole thing. “I never got over seeing Jailhouse Rock,” is one of the first things Kenny Laguna, who's managed Joan for the last eight years with his wife Meryl, tells me. You can do anything.”ĭo you believe in rock 'n' roll? Do you believe in the magic that'll thrill your soul? Do you still wanna die before you get old? “And then,” she smiles, her mouth sneaking up at the corners like a leprechaun-gone-wrong, “once you get a following, nobody can take that away from you. And once you get a following, you can get more gigs, and get a bigger following. Even if ya gotta play for nothin', or almost nothin'.” “But the most important thing is to keep playing. The result, Ebert noted, was an uneven end product. "Indeed the movie's one fault is that it sometimes seems without a clear direction," the critic observed.“Yeah, I know it's hard.” Joan says in her gravel rasp that lets you know just how hard. But then we see the rock band is going nowhere, and the center of the story turns back to the family, after the mother becomes seriously ill." "At first the film seems to be a blue-collar story," he wrote. The culprit seemed to be focus, which Ebert observed. Yet despite this strong performance from Jett and an equally good one from Fox, the movie grossed just $3.54 million its first week in theaters and only $10.49 million overall. "In the bedside scene with Rowlands, she is acting in the big leagues Rowlands is inspired and Jett rises to the same inspiration, and there's a rare, powerful chemistry." "Jett, the movie's one certified rocker, gives the most surprisingly good performance," he wrote in a three-and-a-half-star review. At the same time, her mom's memory issues reveal a terminal cancer diagnosis, which culminates in a moving deathbed conversation between Patti and her mother.Īlthough critics were split on the film's merits, Roger Ebert, for one, appreciated the nuance. Patti eventually goes to sing for the Hunzz, which coincides with her relinquishing responsibility for Benji due to her unsteady lifestyle. Yet Light of Day is far more than just a movie about a struggling band trying to make things happen. Gritty musical flourishes also abounded: Patti tries out for a metal band called the Hunzz by singing Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion," while the Fabulous Thunderbirds appear as themselves during a live concert scene. The city's skyline and legendary dive bar venue the Euclid Tavern also made multiple appearances. Although the movie was filmed in Illinois and Indiana, scenes of Cleveland's industrial areas dominated. Watch Trent Reznor Perform in Light of Day He and two members of a popular Cleveland synth-pop band the Exotic Birds-Frank Vale and a then-unknown Trent Reznor-portrayed a fictional band called the Problems. The Generators featured a musician named Mark Addison, who ended up appearing in Light of Day. It was from that experience that the script was first written." "He said that the best group working at that time was the Generators, so I came here and hung around with them for a period of week. As he said in a 1986 press conference held in the city, the idea for the movie dated back to 1980, when he called up WMMS DJ Kid Leo and "asked him if he could set me up with a bar band in Cleveland that did original material that was good, but whose chances of breaking out were not that strong." Writer and director Paul Schrader based the script on a real Cleveland band, the Generators. At another point, she and her mom clash angrily over her parenting style. The balance is rough to come by: On a particularly tough regional tour, Patti shoplifts steaks by smuggling them out of the store via Benji, which angers Joe. Patti is juggling burgeoning musical stardom with being a single mom to a five-year-old son, Benji, and a tense relationship with her religious mother (Rowlands). Light of Day stars Fox and Jett as siblings Joe and Patti Rasnick, who perform together in a Cleveland rock band, the Barbusters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |