syndicated review

Fascinating Documentary Follows the Frustration of Failed Rock Band

Won’t Anybody Listen Review by Kam Williams

Have you’ve ever wondered what it’s like for four musicians to chase the dream of rock stardom for a decade, only to have to face the harsh reality that it’s not going to happen to them? Afterall, there are about 100,000 bands trying to make it at any given time, and most must eventually wise up. Won’t Anybody Listen, one such cold slap in the face, is as entertaining a documentary as you are likely to see this year. The film heralds the directorial debut of Dov Kelemer while simultaneously chronicling the demise of NC-17, a heavy metal, big hair band from rural Michigan.

The musical equivalent of Hoop dreams, this sobering biopic should be required viewing for every aspiring musician. For it features not only the brief adulation which comes courtesy of the head-bangers’ concerts, but also all the sacrifice and daily drudgery associated with the lifestyle. As a result, we see the quartet more as vulnerable individuals with strained relationships and relatively mundane day-jobs than as the demi-god alter-egos they adopt at night on stage.

Listening to cuts of NC-17 betwixt the interviews, they sound decent for a 1980s garage band, but too dated and untalented to pay to see. So, it’s no surprise to learn by film’s end that they were never signed to a major label, especially since I never heard of them. What is shocking is how long the boys were able to delay the onset of adulthood, as we hear from wives and other lovers who moan about being neglected in favor of a self-indulgent fantasy.

The boys level vague complaints about how tin-eared corporate types control the music business. But it’s seems sort of moot since their band sucks, anyway. This contrast makes for a fascinating film, as we watch four of the most self-deluded losers, stuck in a perpetual state of denial, devote all their free time to practice, promotion and performing.

Won’t anybody listen? No. But they’ll watch this fitting cinematic tombstone, an intriguing capstone to the career of NC-17. The group is to be commended for allowing the release of this humiliating testament, a fate undoubtedly replicated many times over in the graveyard of the mediocre musician.

Excellent (3.5 stars)
Unrated with a sprinkling of adult language