It's been quite a while since filmmaker Tom DiCillo came to my radar. Once his LIVING IN OBLIVION was a must-wanted for me, and the searching for it was damn worthy. I remember being better informed of everything DiCillo when the Anchor Bay DVD of his debut film JOHNNY SUEDE was released than today. It wasn't available in my city and then as time went by I lost track of DiCillo. A couple of years ago his documentary about one of my all-time favorite bands, the Doors, wasn't a blast for me, actually I began to think again in his first one only until recently and it was thanks to Brad Pitt. I'm not one of those who watched -or will watch- this film just because of the appearance of a young Brad Pitt, as the title character. But definitely the recent buzz for Pitt and his Oscar nomination made me ran across an article dealing with Pitt's evolution as an actor, or something like that, and also some really nice drawings of many of his characters, including Johnny Suede. So I realized I still had a pending encounter with DiCillo's debut film; and unlike four years I have now an ebay account so the DVD came in my mail some weeks ago.
After watching this film I read about filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's involvement in it. According to wikipedia, Jarmusch's involvement wasn't anything more than giving to his good friend DiCillo positive feedback on the fourth draft of it. With this, JOHNNY SUEDE sort of reminded me Jarmusch's very own first feature PERMANENT VACACTION. And not just because DiCillo himself was the cinematographer of that film, but also because my approach to both debut films is quite similar. Both are strange films and not fully successful. I have seen only once PERMANENT VACATION; that happened years ago and I don't really plan to revisit it soon. I'm pretty sure the same will happen with JOHNNY SUEDE. Still I must say this is much less of an "experimental" kind of film than Jarmusch's. It's a more accessible vehicle, but nevertheless there is some really strange stuff going on here; the actual tone of the film is quite strange, just like the hair of Johnny Suede and that character played by Nick Cave – having a musician like Cave acting here is certainly pretty darn cool (just like having original music by Link Wray) and it also makes me think in Jarmusch, because of his collaborations with music legends like Tom Waits and Iggy Pop.
It's a character film. One would think of this as a film about music; seeing Pitt in the DVD cover, for example, with his guitar and his pompadour hair can make you think that. For me it's really nice in that regard. The character Johnny Suede, a not-really-extremely-talented young guitar man who loves musicians like Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley (here I think again in Jarmusch, thanks to his MYSTERY TRAIN!), will be sort of appealing to anyone who wants to be a full-time musician. For Johnny many things interrupt his guitar playing, like finding money for the rent. The film is actually more about all of this than about music. Johnny's relationship with two different women has the most important role in the film to be more precise (Catherine Keener is here playing one of them). It was definitely good to finally check this one out even that, and just like its title character, sometimes is not quite likable. Pitt was a really nice choice for this role as he, like Johnny, was still very naïve. In the end, it's really not the best way to begin checking out DiCillo's bodywork, so if you don't really know this filmmaker I recommend you to begin with LIVING IN OBLIVION.
*Watched it on March 04, 2012
After watching this film I read about filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's involvement in it. According to wikipedia, Jarmusch's involvement wasn't anything more than giving to his good friend DiCillo positive feedback on the fourth draft of it. With this, JOHNNY SUEDE sort of reminded me Jarmusch's very own first feature PERMANENT VACACTION. And not just because DiCillo himself was the cinematographer of that film, but also because my approach to both debut films is quite similar. Both are strange films and not fully successful. I have seen only once PERMANENT VACATION; that happened years ago and I don't really plan to revisit it soon. I'm pretty sure the same will happen with JOHNNY SUEDE. Still I must say this is much less of an "experimental" kind of film than Jarmusch's. It's a more accessible vehicle, but nevertheless there is some really strange stuff going on here; the actual tone of the film is quite strange, just like the hair of Johnny Suede and that character played by Nick Cave – having a musician like Cave acting here is certainly pretty darn cool (just like having original music by Link Wray) and it also makes me think in Jarmusch, because of his collaborations with music legends like Tom Waits and Iggy Pop.
It's a character film. One would think of this as a film about music; seeing Pitt in the DVD cover, for example, with his guitar and his pompadour hair can make you think that. For me it's really nice in that regard. The character Johnny Suede, a not-really-extremely-talented young guitar man who loves musicians like Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley (here I think again in Jarmusch, thanks to his MYSTERY TRAIN!), will be sort of appealing to anyone who wants to be a full-time musician. For Johnny many things interrupt his guitar playing, like finding money for the rent. The film is actually more about all of this than about music. Johnny's relationship with two different women has the most important role in the film to be more precise (Catherine Keener is here playing one of them). It was definitely good to finally check this one out even that, and just like its title character, sometimes is not quite likable. Pitt was a really nice choice for this role as he, like Johnny, was still very naïve. In the end, it's really not the best way to begin checking out DiCillo's bodywork, so if you don't really know this filmmaker I recommend you to begin with LIVING IN OBLIVION.
*Watched it on March 04, 2012