Staff Picks: 8 Films That Rock Hard

Not long ago, we showcased our favorite documentaries, but along with fact, it’s always fun to throw in a little fiction. Even though some of our choices are based on real events, they show what happens when Hollywood meets rock ‘n’ roll, and although the results sometimes aren’t so great, for these eight films, the outcome was iconic (at least to us).

1) Stardust (1974)

Picked by: Sarah

The follow-up to 1973’s equally brilliant That’ll Be the Day, David Essex stars as Jim MacLaine, singer with the Stray Cats. The first film saw MacLaine disillusioned with his life and running away from his wife and son to become a rock star. Stardust shows what happens when success comes along and ego and excess take over — with disastrous consequences. Adam Faith gives an excellent performance as Mike, Jim’s manager, having taken over the role from Ringo Starr. There’s even an appearance from Keith Moon, who naturally plays the drummer in the Stray Cats. It’s hard to think of many films more rock ‘n’ roll than this.

2) That Thing You Do! (1996)

Picked by: Rick

Rather than go for the greatest or most significant rock film (to me that would clearly be Almost Famous, which Allison chose), I opted for the rom-com/popcorn flick angle, and to me nothing fits that category better than That Thing You Do! The cast is great (with well-known actors as well as up-and-comers including Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Liv Tyler, Steve Zahn, Chris Isaak, Giovanni Ribisi, Bryan Cranston, Tom Everett Scott, and many more), and the story is even better. The film follows the rise and fall of a Pennsylvania band in the early ’60s who have one Top 40 hit, a “one hit wonder” as their prescient group name “The Wonders” indicates.

If you’ve read anything I’ve done before on REBEAT, you know I like writing about one-hit-wonder groups, and having interviewed quite a few of them over the last few years, I have to say the movie is spot-on.  It’s a story I’ve heard many times before, and the only thing missing is the usual bit about how the band was cheated out of their recording rights and royalties by their label or manager. Finally, the infectious titular song is pretty good, too. With lead vocals by Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers, it was released as a single in 1996 and peaked at #41 on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song.

3) Starstruck (1982)

Picked by: Emma

This Australian-based hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show musical has everything I want from a movie about the music biz.  Aspiring singer, asked to change her entire style to make it big, annoying yet lovable kid brother, and an actual band, the Swingers, starring as the band in the film.

4) Yellow Submarine (1968)

Picked by: Jim

There are so many reasons to cite this film. Despite being considered a contractual obligation chore by the Beatles themselves, they still contributed some memorable music to the picture and infused it with the spirit of where their heads were at the time. Art director Heinz Edelmann’s designs allowed animation in general to go places it hadn’t considered and would influence a wide selection of animators for the next few decades. The message that music can keep depression at bay and save you from rigid repression is a universal aspiration that everyone can relate to; ironically, as the film came to theaters the Czech band Plastic People of the Universe actually lived the story and showed that yes, even if it would take a lot longer to overthrow the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia than the Blue Meanies, love really is all you need.

5) The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Picked by: Andrea

First of all, I refuse to call it Pirate Radio as it was released in the States. The Boat That Rocked is a much more accurate, fun, and catchy title. If you want to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in a funky role — and why wouldn’t you? —  this is the movie for you. In addition to PSH, it’s got some delightful British favorites: Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost. Despite a few lackluster reviews, this film is a great rockin’ time.

6) Almost Famous (2000)

Picked by: Allison

Rick laments above that I swiped Almost Famous before him, but actually, That Thing You Do! is easily tied with AF as my favorite rock movie. What gives the Cameron Crowe film about William Miller, a young music journalist, who lands his first big scoop for Rolling Stone and heads out on the road with rock band Stillwater in the 1970s the edge, however, is the fact that it’s what inspired me to write about music. I was a late-comer to the Almost Famous party; my college roommate was insistent that I would love it and made me watch it one night. She was right. I did love it. I remarked in an article for xoJane last year that while my other friends idolized Penny Lane, I longed to be Miller. But, I reasoned, I was a business major and couldn’t be a rock writer. Ha. Sweet, stupid, college Allison. Anyway, this is the movie that started it all for me, and simply for that reason alone, it’s at the top of my list.

7) High Fidelity (2000)

Picked by: Carey

Driving home from seeing High Fidelity at the movie theater back in 2000, my younger brother and I agreed that we identified way too closely with Rob Gordon, the film’s sad-sack music nerd protagonist. I was 21 at the time, and my brother had just turned 18, and I like to think that we’ve both matured a little bit over the last 15 years, just as Rob does over the course of the movie. But Rob’s quest to understand himself through the lenses of his failed relationships, his attempts to bring some kind of order into his life with endless top-five lists, and record collections arranged in autobiographical order, and his plaintive question, “Which came first — the music or the misery?”– these things still resonate with me.

And while the movie was released two years before I moved to Chicago, it’s full of reasons I love my adopted hometown. Championship Vinyl is modeled after one of my favorite local record stores. Rob sees a movie at my favorite theater, and his apartment is decorated with posters from shows at clubs and bars I’ve also haunted. Lisa Bonet’s singing voice is provided on cassette by singer-songwriter (and then-Chicago resident) Edith Frost, and her character’s apartment is based on my friends’ loft. It’s not hard for me to imagine running into Rob and his friends at a show, or on a Saturday afternoon at the record store, and maybe rolling my eyes a little as they argue about their top five, track one, side ones –and then joining right in the debate.

8) I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Picked by: Pam

Directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis (and co-produced by Steven Spielberg) I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a rollicking comedic love letter for the baby boomer kids who experienced Beatlemania first hand and the rest of us who were born too late but wish we had been there. Taking place in February 1964 in the days leading up to the Beatles’ iconic television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the plot follows a group of teens as they make their way to the Big Apple, many with rabid aspirations of getting tickets to the show and meeting John, Paul, George and Ringo. While the entire cast is entertaining, the stand out in this movie is the late Wendy Jo Spencer of Bosum Buddies fame, playing a hilariously obsessed Paul fan. Other cast members include Theresa Saldana as an inspiring journalist, Bobby Di Cicco as a tough Jersey kid who refers to the Beatles as “candy asses,” and Eddie Deezan as Richard “Ringo” Klauss, a nerdy bellhop who secretly lives in the hotel unnoticed.

The excitement of Beatlemania is so tangible in this film and the sets and costumes so well done that you feel like you’re along for the ride. While the music used throughout the movie is the actual Beatles’ recordings, I love that we never see the faces of the actors actually playing the band; only the backs of their heads towards the end, which adds to their just-out-of-reach mystique. My favorite scene is where the character who shares my name (and who is the unlikeliest Beatles fan of the clique) accidentally finds herself in the Beatles’ hotel room, where she suddenly lets her Fab Four freak flag fly: practically performing fellatio on Paul’s Hofner bass, drinking leftovers from the same cups that touched the boys’ lips, lolling about in their beds, and rubbing their leftover hair, collected from a comb, all over her face in ecstasy. At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to trade places with her?

Did we miss your favorite rock film? Let us know in the comments!