Rudderless (2014)

I can identify with this movie from a musicians point of view. Open mike nights, discovering different people to be in bands. Age and gender does not really matter as far as the love of the music is concerned. Although there are players too old to be in a band with people so much younger from a career and touring point of view. The hunting for rehearsal space because of neighbor's complaints. The weeding through original songs that are sometimes awful and hard to hurt the writers feelings about their art. I liked the Rudderless band's punk rock cover of the kids song Wheels Of The Bus better than anything Josh wrote. His originals were of the whiny contemporary variety. I don't understand why his ex-girlfriend felt entitled to continue her destruction and try to ruin it for everyone.I almost turned this movie off at track 2 on the DVD because of the bad music and the lack of interesting character names, Sam/Josh. Glad I stayed for the emotional slam given on track 11. I did not see that coming. I have not seen any movies about mass shootings; victims, parents, perpetrators or anyone else involved. I have seen a couple of documentaries about medicated children (given because parents lacked discipline and guidance skills) where that is presented as a cause for the flip out. I couldn't understand the grief of the parents partially because they were affluent. Shame on me, grief doesn't know the difference between wealth and poverty. I now have a greater understanding and humility of both sides because of this film. It is many times better than Rikki And The Flash as far a fake band movies and their story lines go but Rikki's music was better. I rated it 8/10. Better music (to me) would have garnered it a 10/10.

Phew. Remembering Crudup in Almost famous thought this was worth a shot. Started slow then the death of his son and then his reaction over 2 years was hard to grasp. But the hidden truth about his son and his music took hold. The music itself was what made this movie incredible and I'm in my late 60's. Why was he playing his sons music with his newly found disturbed young musician without explaining that his son was the writer. The late explanation took me by surprise and maybe many others. A tormenting tale left me in tears but then I'm a sad emotional soul. The torment and distress that the young today have to deal with is well told and apart from the expected glib moments a film well worth watching. I will have to wait sometime before I could watch again but so grateful I did.

I curled up with this movie on a warm Sunday afternoon and enjoyed every minute of it. It caught me by surprise as I really didn't know what it was about. I just knew that William H. Macy directed and wrote part of it so that was good enough to give it a watch. Had I known that Selena Gomez was in it I might of bailed, but luckily she was just in for a few annoying minutes.As for Mr. Macy, this is just one more reason to be a fan given his accomplishments over the years. He's absolutely killing it in Shameless but it's just been one great achievement after another. Well done sir! The story is excellent, the music and the direction around it was very well done, and the acting is superb. Led by Billy Crudup, the cast includes some heavyweights like Laurence Fishburne and a bunch of other very likable and believable actors that help tell this interesting story.

With one word, amazing! There are so many feelings after watching this movie, that I don't know where to begin! An amazing story that even if not true, could as well be. Billy Crudup is awesome and it was a real shock to me when I remembered that he also played in "Almost Famous" (2000)! Both amazing movies by the way!The plot is not really transparent from the beginning and it actually evolves through the movie with some big revealings after the first half of the movie. This came as a shock to us, when some things were made clearer and it really added a lot to the tension of the moment. At the same point in the movie, I thought I could predict what would happen next, but I was completely off, which is a thing that I really appreciate when it happens. Overall, amazing cast, especially Lawrence Fishburn that lighten the mood up as much as it was needed also being a cornerstone character for the movie. His role was so catalytic. I loved all the acting in the movie, I loved all the characters that were placed there making it look like a real case, something that could happen with no flashy or improbable characters. Human, sweet and bitter, with lots of music and some laughs but also lots of emotion and maybe some tears. I LOVED IT!