Songbird

JoAnne Skye (Cobie Smulders) is a 90's rock star. The "Filthy Dukes" is her band. Her stardom is now faded and she's struggling to keep going. When her band finally quits, she reconnects with an old friend Sara Ramsey (Jessica Hynes) living in a caravan and decides to be an university student. She has a fling with administrator Pete (Richard Elis).

Firstly, I adore Cobie Smulders, and Jessica Hynes for Spaced. The 4 rating concerned me but also intrigued me. I can see the problems but it's not quite that bad. This was apparently much improvised, and shot in five days. It looks and feels it. It needs a few more written scenes and to extend it to a full week. It tries to cover with some montage sequences. Smulders could do a little singing but the opening music video is too inferior. I would suggest lip sync. There are a few good songs in the movie. It's fine to pick one of them and have her lip sync it. As for the characters, I like the destructiveness of Smulders, the buried jealousy of Hynes, and Elis' innate niceness. There is a lot to like here but it is still not good enough.

You're probably familiar with the manic pixie romcom formula which is basically: take 1 hyper quirky happy girl with short hair and pair her with a straight-faced, straight-laced, lovable loser of a guy, shake vigorously and hilarity ensues. Fine examples include "500 Days of Summer" (Zooey Deschanel), "Yes Man" (Zooey Deschanel), or anything else that has (Zooey Deschanel). Here we have an interesting twist on the manic pixie romcom formula. Our manic pixie is a real a-hole. And it's the straight-laced loser guy who is the breath of fresh air in her otherwise decaying life.

"Alright Now" is the story of a washed up 30-something, one-hit-wonder singer from the 90s "Jo" (Cobie Smulders) as she struggles with the denial that she can't play the guitar and that that her hip 90s wardrobe is now "ironic vintage" attire. She herself has become a joke to the young kids. So what does she do? She enrolls in college. It's a great premise, like a blend of Riann Wilson's "The Rocker" and Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School" in the context of a manic pixie romcom.

The presentation is very realistic with a lot of improvised scenes that carry a natural awkward brand of humor. Jo trades subtle gags and not-so-subtle sexual innuendo with our lovable loser "Peter" (Richard Elis) who plays the admissions officer at the college but mostly stumbles around like a Welsh rarebit in the headlights. You'll enjoy this if you like awkward humor and imperfect dialogue (people talking over each other, often mumbling nonsense but with the occasional under-the-breath punchline like in films with Michael Cera "Juno", "Superbad", etc). But if you prefer a more traditional type of comedy with scripted jokes and planned gags, you might not get into this flick.

The tagline on the DVD reads "an unconventional romantic comedy" and that's one of the most accurate taglines I've ever seen. This movie presents itself as a romcom, but it deliberately avoids the romcom clichés. There are no emotional airport chase scenes or perfectly planned climactic monologues ending in "You had me at hello". Those movies are a lot of fun, but this is not one of them. This is a romcom at the speed of real life. Like the tagline says, this movie is unconventional. But if you're ready for anything, even a kick in the nuts or two, then this movie will be a fun watch. (In all fairness, guys, you should never sneak up on a woman who is deep in the transcendental serenity of meditation. Not without wearing a jockstrap.)

I was expecting very little from this movie. From the Blu-ray cover, I thought I'd make it through 10 minutes before turning it off. The first few "documentary" style minutes were not very good. But, once it got down to the narrative, this was a thoroughly entertaining love story.

To appreciate this, you need to be able to watch very low budget, almost home made quality movies. The acting and characters made up for the unpleasing visual aesthetic. This is from the UK, so it's character driven, not standard 3-Act-Structure.

For what it is, it's damn entertaining. I know I'll watch again, actually quite a few more times.

It's a keeper.

I don't know what people expected but I really don't understand why there is so much hate towards this movie. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. The lead character Joanne is an extraverted, outspoken person who says and does whatever she wants. She makes people uncomfortable trom time to time and that's what makes her real. She doesn't have her life even remotely figured out. The movie shows life exactly as it is. Improvisation is the point of the whole thing. There are no great lines, suprising twists or love at first sight. It's everyday events that lead to people forming bonds with each other . I think the movie is great and you should give it a try.

What happens when you mix a mediocre script with a bad director? Actors will suffer for life. Coby will have to cover this shameful tattoo of a film all her career. I don't know much about the editor who will be another innocent casualty of sorry filmmaking. Above and beyond the script lacks enough dialogue to fill up a commercial or a 4 minutes trailer. Jesus, Paul and all the prophets tricks couldn't have saved the day. Oh and the music section : what up with that. I am now very curious to watch more by the same director to see how he has managed to get this monstrosity financed. I should have known better when I saw the 4.1 rating which is uber generous.