What can I say about Rainn Wilson?
Aside from believing he’s phenomenally underrated as the sycophantic Dwight Schrute to Steve Carell’s Michael Scott on NBC’s award-winning The Office, I’ve never really found him that promising as an actor. He seems to be one of those comedians who does one thing really well and then milks it for all its worth… and then some.
After bombing in his hosting duty at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards when no less than Dustin Hoffman ad-libbed the ceremony’s funniest line (which I won’t even begin to repeat here but involved making love to Javier Bardem), Wilson seemed to have suffered the fate of a majority of TV stars in being more or less pigeonholed to his alter ego Dwight Schrute. And this was all the more evident during his squirm-inducing, awfully delivered “Fertile Myrtle,” “That ain’t no etch-a-sketch” brief cameo opposite the Oscar nominated Ellen Page in last year’s critical darling, Juno. For proof replay his performance in a scene that — despite my adoration for the film and Diablo Cody’s writing — I still feel would’ve been best left on the cutting room floor.
So needless to say, when I first saw the trailer for The Rocker, I braced myself for the worst in what looked like would ultimately be a School of Rock rehash, minus Jack Black. But having been a fan of two of British director Peter Cattaneo’s previous films — The Full Monty and Lucky Break -- I wanted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt.
Of course, I was nearly forced into merriment at a screening complete with The Rocker groupies who were coming back for their fifth, sixth, and even seventh screening of the film. If movie characters lived in an alternate universe, no doubt Kate Hudson’s Almost Famous self-described “Band-Aid,” Penny Lane would be proud. In fact, it’s ironic that it called to mind the aforementioned films since as a word-of-mouth campaign I hadn’t seen one this effective since the likes of Juno or School of Rock. And while I don’t think I’ll be coming back tri-weekly and will be able to hold off until DVD for another viewing, sure enough, when the film started, I quickly found myself in hysterics. Additionally, I realized that, while indeed most will compare the film to School of Rock and Wilson to Black, it’s been quite awhile since Jack Black genuinely made me laugh. In fact, the last time could very well have been in School of Rock.
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to forgo the advice of “accept no substitutes,” and let Wilson and not Black rock the audience for 102 minutes. Obviously, it helps if one is old enough to remember the '80s as we open via a pitch-perfect flashback in Cleveland, 1986 as Wilson’s overly enthusiastic and extremely sweaty drummer Robert “Fish” Fishman and his hair metal band Vesuvius (led by no less than Arrested Development’s Will Arnett as the front-man) rock their own on-screen audience. On the cusp of a record deal with a major label, Vesuvius discovers that fame comes with a price — namely nepotism — when the one thing standing in their path is Fish, as he’s ousted by disloyal band-mates and an industry man’s nephew is lined up to step in as their new drummer.
Article comments
1 - Derek Fleek
I might take a look at this one when it hits the DVD rack. I saw a few clips and they made me laugh, but I'll see how well it holds up as a feature length film when it comes out on DVD. Nice review.