Detroit
Rock City (1999)
"When
I got home mom and dad were rocking on the couch, Really
rocking, rock and rolling, Got my Kiss records out..."-
Cheap Trick "Surrender"
Certainly
"Detroit Rock City" isn't made for 35 year old gay males,
(I mean, they use the word fag or faggot about 12 times)
but I loved the fuck outta this movie. Jesus... you
get to see cutie Sam Huntington ("Jungle 2 Jungle")
shirtless in boxers... And you get to watch a fleshy
but still damn dreamy Eddie Furlong struts his stuff
on stage at a strip club, doing his awesome erotic gyrations
to a Kiss song while looking like Kevin Bacon from "Footloose"
having an acid flashback. It's a gay man's dream come
true. But, perhaps more importantly, the film is genuinely
amusing, with some laugh-out-loud albeit juvenile moments
including the most hilarious vomit scene I've ever scene
in a movie. Also "Detroit Rock City" is able to quite
effectively recall the gentle rebellion of films like
"Rock and Roll High School" and the ilk.
Eddie,
Sam and another cute guy head to Detroit to see Kiss
with their long haired, dope-smoking bud, Trip. They
adore Kiss. They have a band called Mystery (with the
S like Kiss' lightening bolt logo) and play "Rock and
Roll All Night" with the kind of youthful exuberance
that only a teenage band in a suburban garage could
muster. Better yet, they hate disco and all it represents
in that fun and sweet rebellious way that we all did
in 1978. And, in the film's most effective moment, one
of them rages against the hypocritical, myopic morality
that wants to do nothing but quell rock and roll. These
boys do everything but burn the high school down; They're
having too much fun getting high, getting laid and getting
to Detroit to see Kiss in concert.
Director
Adam Rifkin, who made his mark with the clever and rambunctious
Charlie Sheen vehicle "The Chase" several years ago
returns in great form here. Every moment in this film
is fun to watch. He captures that gritty, denim-fading,
greasy-haired rebel of the time acting purely on impulse
and hormones and exposes him to us with the chords of
Cheap Trick or The Runaways or Foghat or, well, Kiss
percolating in the background like some wonderful AM
rock station resurrected just for one night. He captures
the moment and the time and the feeling without being
campy or glitzy or showy. It's prefect pitch in cinematic
retro bliss.
As
for Kiss, if you go to this film just to see the band,
you will be sorely disappointed. But if the antics of
the 4 guys here don't make you laugh and smile and feel
joyous - if you don't see yourself or someone you know
on the screen - you just didn't have a life in the 70's.
Too bad for you! Me, I'm gonna rock and roll all night
and party everyday!
Note:
Also with Natasha Lyonne, Shannon Tweed, Ron Jeremy
and a chunky 90's Kiss pretending they are the 70's
Kiss.
Co-Produced
by Gene Simmons.
Noticed
by my friend Tim: The only truly violent scene in the
movie is underscored by classical music, not rock music.
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