| Garage Days |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 105 |
| Public Rating: 7.38 (140 votes) |
Director: Alex Proyas |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: comedy/ romance |
Year: 2002 |
| Writer(s): Alex Proyas & Dave Warner (story), Dave Warner, Alex Proyas & Mi |
| Distributor: Fox Searchlight |
| Reviewed by: Avril Carruthers |
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Starring Kick Gurry, Pia Miranda, Maya Stange, Chris Sadrinna, Brett Stiller, Marton Csokas, Yvette Duncan, Russell Dykstra.
Director Alex Proyas brought us The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998). His vision has excelled in the montage of dark subjects but this movie is an excursion into hilarious romantic comedy, and a teen flick at that. All his stunning trademark interesting-angle camera shots, time/motion manipulation and wonderful graphic special effects are here, giving a brilliant finished product.
A garage band which does not score highly in talent but which has heaps of unpolished enthusiasm and imitative stylistics comprises singer Freddy (Kick Gurry, Looking For Alibrandi, 2000), his girlfriend Tanya on bass guitar (Pia Miranda, Looking For Alibrandi), drug-crazed Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) on drums and the saturnine Joey (Brett Stiller) on lead guitar. The movie truthfully covers all the pitfalls and obstacles of young bands struggling to get a gig – the drugs, sexual jealousy, lack of money, the lack of a cohesive creative vision, and the lack of opportunity for performing. In the current Sydney scene this is exacerbated by increasing numbers of pubs substituting poker/slot machines for live band entertainment. The funky inner-west Sydney suburb of Newtown is the background.
Freddy and Tanya have a less than satisfying sex life – to her, at least. As far as Freddy’s concerned, what gets his rocks off is his usual rockstar performance fantasy. University student Tanya is fiery, never short of an opinion and mockingly bored with the effect her provocative presence has on most boys. The band’s manager is a buffoon (Russell Dykstra, Soft Fruit, 1999, Lantana, 2001) is brilliantly funny as the well-meaning, eager and inept Bruno) who bungles their first gig by publicising the wrong pub. Troubled lead guitarist Joey lives with his father, Kevin (Andy Anderson), an aging wildchild rocker from the sixties, who seems to spend a fair bit of his time in lurid undies. Joey also has a girlfriend Kate (Maya Stange, Head On, 1998, In a Savage Land, 1999) a budding song-writer who falls for Freddy after a stolen kiss. A bizarre gothic lover, Angie (Yvette Duncan), who is obsessed with death, appears frequently in Joey’s room and seduces him with only the weakest of protests from him. Later, we realise Angie is the tip of a dark iceberg which gradually reveals itself and threatens to further wreck the band’s chances.
The movie takes us through Freddy’s chance meeting with a famous rock group’s manager Shad Kern (Marton Csokas, fresh from XXX and Rain). There are some interesting attempts at negotiations, involving a rockstar’s two-timing girlfriend, which, against all expectations, eventuate in the band singing in front of thousands of rock fans at Sydney’s home-band rock-concert mega event, Homebake.
Part of the strength of this movie, apart from stellar performances by the entire cast, is in the extremely fast pace which reels from scene to scene much like the roller-coaster lives of its young characters, creating situations which skitter between farce and tragedy. The dialogue and Freddy’s voice-over provide much of the humour, backing up the sight-gags. A face-achingly funny scene is when Bruno blunders into a room to ask Shad, who is receiving some unseen intimate attention below the table from a wannabe rockette, to come to hear the group’s rehearsal. “Yes, yes,” Shad gasps, unaware that Bruno is even there, “a demo, yes!” sending Bruno rushing out to tell the band.
Because of its young viewpoint that high-risk behaviour is fun, there is little moralising, even with the two extended scenes captioned “Fun with drugs Parts I & 2”. These contain some of the funniest hallucination sequences ever, nonetheless terrifying for the participants, particularly when Lucy puts liquid LSD instead of liquid ecstasy in the group’s drinks just before a dinner party at which Tanya intends asking her wealthy parents for money for a demo CD. Even though some of the situations these youngsters get themselves into are extreme one way or another, there is the sense that they are somehow propelled over every problem – heartache, depression, mental illness, unplanned pregnancy, agonising frustrations, bad drug trips and even Freddy’s final cheerful assessment that as a band they exhibit “high suckage factor”– purely on the momentum of the exuberance of youth. They skate, half aware, over precipices, and though their emotions soar and plummet wildly, they are swiftly on to the next scenario.
Another strongly vibrant feature of the movie is the camerawork. The colours and angles, particularly of the slow-motion sequences, are stunning – a raindrop falling, perfectly round, from a height, a capsule thrown up and falling, end over end, into the open mouth of Lucy, Tanya blowing a huge bubble-gum bubble which bursts over most of her face, Freddy falling backwards into the mosh-pit. They are celebrations of the moment-to- moment reality the characters are living. Some of Joey’s dark visions are devastating. Proyas’ treatment of his subject is so exuberant and innovative, the score so appropriate, the action so snappy, and the ending so paradoxically appropriate that all danger of falling into clichés is joyfully averted.
© Avril Carruthers 6th October 2002
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