By all accounts Sunset Strip (2000) seemed like a solid choice for a sleepless Saturday night. It’s set in the 1970’s, has pretty great actors like Jared Leto, Simon Baker, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, and Nick Stahl, and it sells itself as sort of a rock n’ roll Dazed and Confused.
Or maybe I just assumed that it was, considering the cast.If you find yourself whimsically wondering what ever happened to Nick Stahl, the answer is METH.
Anyway, I was thinking maybe this was one of those sadly overlooked decent movies. Unfortunately, this is one of those ‘Jesus Christ I wish someone else had been in charge of this’ movies.
Right away the story is murky and confusing, and ‘trying too hard’ in that way that movies do when they put all the characters in the same place at once (usually a diner), but don’t have them interact. Like flouncy ships passing in the night, connected only by a sassy waitress who happens to be played by Judy Greer.
It is about a handful of wannabe famous/semi famous L.A. types; a couple musicians, a groupie stylist, and a photographer. Each one has at least one vague “issue” and chooses to deal with their woes in the worst way possible.
The stylist is named Tammy. She runs a small clothing shop where she bosses around Mary Lynn Rajskub, and has a lot of fashion montages. She easily could be the most hated character if it weren’t for Jared Leto’s awful southern accent. She is flighty and self absorbed, and brags that she will fuck anyone who can play the guitar. She also has terrible, and I mean terrible, fashion sense, yet spends most of the film talking shit about what people are wearing, insisting that it doesn’t work.Ironically, she also looks the least accurately dressed for the time period. Her ex is a guy named Duncan, who I thought might have been that dude from The Cult for awhile or Rufus Wainwright if I squinted my eyes. He is the most obviously successful, as the lead singer/sex symbol? of a band that sounds kinda like U2. Thankfully, their songs only last about a minute.
She is unbelievably obnoxious. You do get to see her boobs, but it is late in the movie, so you might be rage blind by then.
He best friend is a band photographer named Michael (Simon Baker), who only seems to have one client named Glen (Jared Leto).Simon Baker is one of the reasons I made it through the whole film. I love The Mentalist, and he is one of the few who I feel didn’t coast through their lines, despite having little to no character development. He is in love with Tammy for some reason, but instead of telling her, he Inadvertently gives her the Clap.
Felix (Rory Cochrane) is his best friend/drunken songwriter/composer. He also has no real point, other than the off comments that he had written a lot of great songs that other people were getting famous off of. One of the best scenes in the movie involves him and Michael, but again, it’s more that Rory is so charismatic that you grow to like the character in all the unsaid- all the subtle nuances like when he chooses to flash a sad smile.The whole time I watched that particular scene, I couldn’t help thinking of all the great potential a movie could have, with just those two and an actually decent script/plot.
The main reason Sunset Strip is such a pile of garbage isn’t just that it didn’t have anything remarkable (other than it’s ability to suffocate talent), it’s that it is basically just a few ideas chucked into a bowl. I imagine that the entire screenplay was written on a cocainetini soaked napkin, and they decided on the dialogue the hour before shooting.
Like Randall Jahnson and Russell DeGrazier we just wasted one night throwing out buzz words for characters, strung together a plot, and shouted to each other about how counter culture and fantastic the whole thing was until they sobered up – but by then it was too late, and Adam Collis was already filming.
So what about Nick Stahl? His part is a little harder to explain… It honestly feels like a separate movie. He plays Zach. Zach had a near death are you experienced in which Jimi Hendrix tells him to devout his life to wailing on the guitar.He does wail on the guitar, and drop acid that had little to no effect on him. He rents a room from an incredibly sweet and delightful old man.
Nothing in the scenes with Nick Stahl feel especially 1970’s OR especially Los Angeles. He sort of meanders around with his big puppy dog eyes. They cared so little about his character that they spelled his name differently in the end credits.
Nick Stahl CAN act. I’d watch a movie about Nick Stahl hanging out with an adorable old man. It is so frustrating. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL!
But it isn’t.
Oh, and Jared Leto- I think you can pin point the exact moment where he laughs directly into the camera, acknowledging that he is getting paid regardless.
By all accounts Sunset Strip (2000) seemed like a solid choice for a sleepless Saturday night. It’s set in the 1970’s, has pretty great actors like Jared Leto, Simon Baker, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, and Nick Stahl, and it sells itself as sort of a rock n’ roll Dazed and Confused.
Or maybe I just assumed that it was, considering the cast.If you find yourself whimsically wondering what ever happened to Nick Stahl, the answer is METH.
Anyway, I was thinking maybe this was one of those sadly overlooked decent movies. Unfortunately, this is one of those ‘Jesus Christ I wish someone else had been in charge of this’ movies.
Right away the story is murky and confusing, and ‘trying too hard’ in that way that movies do when they put all the characters in the same place at once (usually a diner), but don’t have them interact. Like flouncy ships passing in the night, connected only by a sassy waitress who happens to be played by Judy Greer.
It is about a handful of wannabe famous/semi famous L.A. types; a couple musicians, a groupie stylist, and a photographer. Each one has at least one vague “issue” and chooses to deal with their woes in the worst way possible.
The stylist is named Tammy. She runs a small clothing shop where she bosses around Mary Lynn Rajskub, and has a lot of fashion montages. She easily could be the most hated character if it weren’t for Jared Leto’s awful southern accent. She is flighty and self absorbed, and brags that she will fuck anyone who can play the guitar. She also has terrible, and I mean terrible, fashion sense, yet spends most of the film talking shit about what people are wearing, insisting that it doesn’t work.Ironically, she also looks the least accurately dressed for the time period. Her ex is a guy named Duncan, who I thought might have been that dude from The Cult for awhile or Rufus Wainwright if I squinted my eyes. He is the most obviously successful, as the lead singer/sex symbol? of a band that sounds kinda like U2. Thankfully, their songs only last about a minute.
She is unbelievably obnoxious. You do get to see her boobs, but it is late in the movie, so you might be rage blind by then.
He best friend is a band photographer named Michael (Simon Baker), who only seems to have one client named Glen (Jared Leto).Simon Baker is one of the reasons I made it through the whole film. I love The Mentalist, and he is one of the few who I feel didn’t coast through their lines, despite having little to no character development. He is in love with Tammy for some reason, but instead of telling her, he Inadvertently gives her the Clap.
Felix (Rory Cochrane) is his best friend/drunken songwriter/composer. He also has no real point, other than the off comments that he had written a lot of great songs that other people were getting famous off of. One of the best scenes in the movie involves him and Michael, but again, it’s more that Rory is so charismatic that you grow to like the character in all the unsaid- all the subtle nuances like when he chooses to flash a sad smile.The whole time I watched that particular scene, I couldn’t help thinking of all the great potential a movie could have, with just those two and an actually decent script/plot.
The main reason Sunset Strip is such a pile of garbage isn’t just that it didn’t have anything remarkable (other than it’s ability to suffocate talent), it’s that it is basically just a few ideas chucked into a bowl. I imagine that the entire screenplay was written on a cocainetini soaked napkin, and they decided on the dialogue the hour before shooting.
Like Randall Jahnson and Russell DeGrazier we just wasted one night throwing out buzz words for characters, strung together a plot, and shouted to each other about how counter culture and fantastic the whole thing was until they sobered up – but by then it was too late, and Adam Collis was already filming.
So what about Nick Stahl? His part is a little harder to explain… It honestly feels like a separate movie. He plays Zach. Zach had a near death are you experienced in which Jimi Hendrix tells him to devout his life to wailing on the guitar.He does wail on the guitar, and drop acid that had little to no effect on him. He rents a room from an incredibly sweet and delightful old man.
Nothing in the scenes with Nick Stahl feel especially 1970’s OR especially Los Angeles. He sort of meanders around with his big puppy dog eyes. They cared so little about his character that they spelled his name differently in the end credits.
Nick Stahl CAN act. I’d watch a movie about Nick Stahl hanging out with an adorable old man. It is so frustrating. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL!
But it isn’t.
Oh, and Jared Leto- I think you can pin point the exact moment where he laughs directly into the camera, acknowledging that he is getting paid regardless.
