Thank You, Good Night

I saw this movie at the Tambay Film Festival in Tampa and I really enjoyed it. There was excellent acting and directing, and the cinematography was good for such a limited budget and resources. Chuck did a good job!

This movie probably won't change your life.

It won't make you all teary-eyed or queasy-stomached. It won't make you quit your job and join a band, or call up your parents and apologize for all your teenage angst. What it will do, though, is keep you entertained--which, to be perfectly honest, is no small feat in and of itself. The characters are likable and dynamic enough to make you root for the happy ending, while the plot is suspenseful enough that that the ending--whether or not it's a happy one is another story altogether--is far from foretold. When you've got a lazy Friday night, when all you really want is an hour and a half's worth of early-90s escapism, when you're in the mood to have someone tell you a story--Thank You, Good Night fits the bill. Besides--it has Mark Hamill in it. What's not to love?

I rented "Thank You, Good Night" because it reunited Christian Campbell and JP Pitoc from "Trick" and while it's a completely different kind of film, it's satisfying in its own right. We've seen the story many times before - band filled with insecure slacker types goes on the road in search of success, faces obstacles, come close to breaking up, etc. - but thanks to some nice film-making and good performances all around (why isn't Christian Campbell a huge star by now?), it feels fresh. The biggest problem is that the band, essentially, isn't very good. We want to root for them, but their derivative music clearly won't cut it in the real world, so any success they may or may not achieve (not giving anything away here!) isn't deserved - or was that a conscious choice to make them as bad as most bands out there struggling in vain for stardom? See "The Commitments" for a similar story with amazing performances, but "Thank You, Good Night" was a pleasant enough film.

I recently watched Thank You, Good Night. It was a great film and a very interesting plot. There were some very strong point to the film and some weaker point. The strong point of the film, include the music, very up beat; the lighting and the directing were great. The weak point that I've notice were the fact that there was too many scene changes in a few section of the movie. It sort of break the viewer concentration. Also, during some of the emotional part of the movie, it was not able to bring that emotion to the audience (ie: not sad enough but that's probably due to the script). Overall, I believe Thank You, Good Night was a great independent film and I think Chuck has done a wonderful job. I would definitely recommend this film to other people.

Granted, it shows that there wasn't a lot of money to make this movie, but Mark Hamill is great as the father in this movie taking on the rock band genre. The director shows some good potential, but we'll have to wait and see when his next movie comes out. The cast is solid with their performances and the camera moves pretty much with ease. It's not the typical indie film, but for that I applaud it.