Movie Review | Garage Days
Reviewed by: Brian Orndorf

Freddy (Kick Gurry) wants nothing more from life than to be a rock star. With his bandmates, Tanya (Pia Miranda), Lucy (Chris Sadrinna), and Joe (Brett Stiller), Freddy is quite ambitious in chasing his dreams, ending up on the doorstep of powerful manager Shad Kern (Marton Csokas, “XXX”). Hoping to impress Kern with his band’s abilities, the group tries hard to overcome their differences and money troubles to scrounge up a demo. But life has other plans for Freddy, which becomes clear when he falls for Joe’s girlfriend Kate (Maya Stange, “XX/XY”), causing a rift in the band and threatening Freddy’s dreams.

“Garage Days” is director Alex Proyas’s ode to the free-wheeling world of Aussie rock and roll. A world where only ambition is the limit to your dreams. After sleeping during the afternoons making the everlastingly nocturnal pictures “The Crow” and “Dark City,” “Garage Days” is a potent reminder that Proyas can make films that are set during the day. I’m sure the picture is a sorbet of sorts for Proyas, who tackles this project with a limited budget and a no-name cast. But punk rock this film is certainly not. This tale of the rise and fall of a garage band isn’t particularly original, nor is it compelling enough to sustain the running time. So Proyas, having dazzled the masses with his stylistic razzmatazz in his earlier films, brings his industrious visual sense to “Days.” Too bad the film doesn’t need it. Since the story is following a pretty familiar set list of scenes to cover (drug abuse, evil managers, romantic entanglements), Proyas decides to light a fire under his own film with a barrage of extravagant, often nonsensical camera tricks and GC tweaks. Oh, it’s cute for about 20 minutes, then the story starts to sink in, and it becomes apparent that Proyas is tap dancing just a bit too hard to keep to momentum up. Honestly, do we need a slow motion shot of laundry detergent flowing out of a box? Overall, “Garage Days” is an indulgent film, but without the benefit of passion in the storytelling, the visuals are just empty calories.

The tone of “Garage Days” has its problems too. As the film opens, and the audience is introduced to the swirling mix of characters and their habits, the picture seems a cross between “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” and “Velvet Goldmine.” Proyas is mindful of playing out the script like the driving music that underscores the film, and like Todd Haynes’s shimmering “Goldmine,” he tries to match the texture of the film to the rock music that inspires it. However, in an effort to ensure that the audience embraces these characters, there is a romantic subplot foisted on to the enterprise, breaking its backbone in the process. When making a film about bands and music, there’s no need to devote half of the film to love and betrayal. By force-feeding heart into the mix, Proyas takes away vital time from the star of the film: the music. What starts as a pile-driving mix of sex, drugs, and dreams, melts down in its final moments like reheated Nora Ephron leftovers, complete with a “go get her!” comedic car chase and a sickeningly gooey ending. “Garage Days” ends up two movies stuck in one projector, canceling each other out. I don’t mind romance, especially with somebody as good as actress Maya Stange in one of those roles, but not in a film that opens with an AC/DC song, and ends up bordering on an Air Supply tune. For a director who pulled off impossibly alluring gloom in “The Crow,” this brighter attempt at complacency is disappointing.

Cinematic celebrations of rock music and the lifestyle are tough to pull off, and you can count “Garage Days” as another failed attempt. It is energetic and terminally happy, but the amplifiers just aren’t loud enough for this film to blow any minds.

Grade: 4/10