Spinning Gold

It's a biopic of Neil Bogart (Jeremy Jordan) who co-founded Casablanca Records. In 1974, they are a new company with only one act on their roster. It's KISS. Neil is having an affair with KISS manager Joyce Biawitz (Lyndsy Fonseca) while his wife Beth (Michelle Monaghan) is at home with the kids.

It's an interesting story that I'm not familiar with. I do know all the songs, but they are a little before my time. The lead needs to be a star. Jeremy Jordan does a fine job. In fact, he's probably very close to the real Neil Bogart. A leading man role does require the biggest star that they can get. As for directing and writing, it's a mistake for Neil's son to do the job. He's also not the most experienced. It's a bit of his father's gambling mentality. He's betting on himself, but the film would benefit from someone better than him. In the end, the songs are great and the story is compelling. The filmmaking is average at best. It's a passable biopic.

A colorful and moving tribute to Neil Bogart, "Spinning Gold" is about fulfilling dreams and life itself. A somewhat sedate and less manic "Vinyl" the movie is a cruise through mid - 20th Century America and the ascent of a young Jewish man from humble and troubled beginnings in New York to the pinnacle of success in Hollywood and beyond. Jeremy Jordan livens the party as the glib and amiable Bogart who navigates his way through debt and hairy personal situations in making his record label Casablanca Records the most successful independent music company. Along the way we're witness to music history as Bogart discovers or signs KISS, Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, The Village People, Parliament, etc.., and the rest is music history. One aspect missing here is the failure to bring life to the times and the music. Too much focus on the interpersonal relationships charts this tale into tunnel vision that misses the fun parts of a fun time. Perhaps the most glaring sin is the miscasting of the music legends featured. The actors are either too tall, too short or too fat. Considering the nature of the film they should have damn well made the actors look like their characters as much as possible. All in all a fine tribute to a man and a time that altered and enriched and whose legacy endures potently to this day.

I will give the director (son of the man this movie is about) credit. Watching this movie from beginning to end (or rather listening to the narration, A clear sign this movie was bad) made me interested in his dad. Ironically, I became so interested that I felt this man deserved a better movie about himself.

It was over bloated with too much stuff that could not be gel together well. Possibly would have been better as a series of episodes in which each musical act was on focus (If it was a series, I would give it a higher rating simply because of the Kiss episode).

Its funny that the movie is about the filmmaker's father because it felt like the man himself directed it as a stoke to his own ego.

Literally, the film was a man telling me how awesome he is and realistic that could have been done in a podcast or Youtube video. These days listening to some one talk for over two hours seems like better time management than watching a boring biopic.

It was apparent that the production took inspiration from Wolf of Wallstreet and Bohemian Rhapsody. It wanted to show great musical moments from the highs and lows of a man's career; although a lot of it was taken out of context and not entirely true, and the cocaine infused chaos of the 70s but with a Party City wig.

Bad: Casting choices (that's the least convincing Gene Simmons I've ever seen), Hair and wardrobe choices (I want to puke every time I see the pubes I mean chest hair from Neil), and the green screen and vfx.

Good: The music is real good! Tayla Parx is a new discovery for me, has bits and pieces of fun though they fail to sustain it multiple times, Jason Derulo with a surprising performance.

At the end of the day, you can't fault a family wanting to honor a legendary family member but it would have been better had the creative direction been given to someone with experience. Just didn't seem worth the 10 years of pre production for this level of output.

My rating (6) is higher then the movie actually deserves.. This has to do that I'm greatfull to learn the origin some of my music. Not using the original music tracks is a big miss of the true feeling in my hart. No discredit to Donna Summer actrice Tylor Parks, but she does not have the voice or image of Donna Summer. I'm sure it has to do with the original song rights where proberly to expensive to use in the movie. That's a real shame because it would give the movie much more credit. The acting is oke-ish, but story play is poor. I had people that just walked out of the cinema that could not look at it anymore. (...) second half of the movie was better. But it took to long to be involved as a viewer.