The Transcendents

Watched the Go Go's at the Rock & Roll HOF ceremony the other day and started doing a deep dive on all the work they've done solo over the past few decades.

WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE TO FIND THIS GEM WITH KATHY VALENTINE!!!

In a movie about a rock & roll band on the the rise and fall and rise and fall, there's 1. No Rock&Roll music and 2. Characters played by rock musicians who bring a real authenticity to the world of indie rock music. This is especially apparent with Valentine who has been as mainstream as possible at times in her career and as indie as possible. She brings a real authenticity to the character of Jan (an owner of a dive bar that used to be big and is now lucky to get a few customers a night).

The whole cast is spectacular, but Kathy is a surprisingly good actor. I hope this film wasn't just a one off and that she continues to act along with all the great music she puts out between her many bands and collaborators.

Def check out this movie.

The critic reviews point to this being Lynchian or even a horror film. It's not. It's a drifter film with the actor Rob Franco as the drifter. He gives a very weird performance that reminded me of 80s Rourke; in particular Rourke in the film Homeboy. Franco is dangerous and combustible. And he holds the film together in the second act - which is the only somewhat problematic act in the film. It still works, but compared to the high stakes absurdity of the first act and the beautiful sonata that is the third act, the second act underwhelms a bit. But that's only a minor quibble. The rest of the cast is terrific and the score is brilliant. I wish I could buy he score.

I rented this from the local library and don't know why it was in the "rock doc" section. It's not a documentary at all. There's not even any of the fictional band's music in it. I was actually looking for the new Go Go's documentary. I guess the fact that there wasn't the band's music in it was smart, because the score is lush with an old school western vibe. And since the plot is a revenge plot, I see why the choice of western was made.

Anyway, the movie is actually very good. It's creepy and surreal. Even the casting was surreal. Like outside of Valentine from the Go Go's, I feel like I saw every other actor in a different strange indie or something. Sure enough, after I looked them up, they were in other strange films that i'd seen. Good casting.

You can't do movies anymore like this. (not that this movie is not good) but you can't expect people to fall into a trance and get lost in a film. This is a super moody movie that you really need to not have other distractions when watching. I had my daughter crying, had to turn it off -- turned it back on, couldn't remember what happened. My husband starts yapping about a sports game -- had to turn it off. Turn it back on and can't remember what I was watching. It's not that people don't have patience anymore, but they are simply too distracted by other people to focus. I'm sure this movie is great in a nice air conditioned dark movie theater, but that's not how I saw the movie. And that's not how most people will see the movie.

Watch this movie for the brilliantly performed monologue by the great Savannah Welch. It's the culmination of a character's descent in depravity. Like pealing away the layers of an onion. It's wonderfully written and the director really allows Welch to do her thing with an extremely long push in that stays at this insane close on her depraved face as she sets up a totally cathartic final act of the film.