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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
Roadie
A Queens Boy's Dreams Fall Apart At The Seams

Ron Eldard as Jimmy and Jill Hennessy as Nikki in Michael Cuesta's "Roadie".  Magnolia Pictures
    
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

 If you've failed at something, can you ever go back home and show your face?  Show the people that you trumpeted your now-failed dreams to so enthusiastically way back when that you are back?  Jimmy Testagros (Ron Eldard) does so, albeit by sheer accident, heading back to Queens, New York after being kicked out of a rock band (Long Island's Blue Öyster Cult no less) as a 20-plus-years equipment carrier and band set-up man, in Michael Cuesta's "Roadie", playing now in San Francisco in an exclusive one-week run. 

Suddenly exiled, Jimmy has no place to go.  He visits his ailing mother (Lois Smith) under the guise of seeing her before heading off to a South American gig with the band.  He lies about his position, claiming to be the band's manager.  Jimmy runs into long-time antagonist Randy (Bobby Cannavale) and his musician wife Nikki (Jill Hennessy), whom Jimmy has long had designs on.  They've never left Queens and appear happy.  Jimmy however, realizes that they may be living a lie of their own.

"Roadie" is about traveling miles within your own heart and being content and proud of the strides you've made in life, whether big or small.  At times a comedy but most often a quiet, affecting drama, "Roadie" has ambition but like its main character never escapes the trappings of predictability to burst to life and become something more.  We bide our time waiting for inevitable revelations to arise.  Like many musicians let alone aspiring ones, we know that Jimmy, a proud man, will hit rock bottom -- as if a rock star -- before rebounding.  He's a man full of missed opportunities and callings, some of them his fault, others beyond his control.  Jimmy plays along like a band member when he has to, trying to keep up appearances and escape his past.  The tough economic landscape has forced Jimmy to reckon with the past and a possibly bleak future.  "Roadie" shows us the despair in short, sharp but realistic bursts, creating a sense of helplessness and sloppy, aching despair in one particular scene.

Mr. Cuesta, who also directed "L.I.E.", which acutely dealt with boys and men and rites of passage, writes this drama with his brother Gerald, penning good dialogue.  "Roadie" is also about fitting in and belonging, and various characters because of their station (the elderly, the infirm, etc.,) are on the fringes yet loved by those who know them best.  "Roadie", which has the feel of a television sitcom-drama, is a soul-searching misadventure for Jimmy, who's wonderfully played with palpable vulnerability and ache by Ron Eldard, also great last year in "Super 8".  Lois Smith is terrific as Jimmy's mother, one who obviously knows her son best but nonetheless accommodates his lies as an act of love.  Mr. Cannavale does what he does best as the annoying Randy, and Ms. Hennessy gives a smart, fully aware role-playing performance as Nikki, a woman who realizes that Jimmy is the one who got away.

"Roadie" has, if nothing else, a heart that beats persistently.  The film tries to win you over but it's strictly the performances of Mr. Eldard and Ms. Smith that do.  This intimate drama works when it avoids the extracurriculars of peripheral characters in Queens, which it mostly does.  Otherwise, "Roadie" is an unremarkable effort, gone from view as quickly as it enters, with Mr. Eldard and Ms. Smith not leaving so quickly or quietly.

With: David Margulies, Catherine Wolf, Suzette Gunn.

"Roadie" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for pervasive language and some drug content.  The film's running time is one hour and 35 minutes.
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