NIMRODS – A Green Day Comedy | Official Trailer – In Theaters on August 14th<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in 1999, a stoner road trip comedy by the name of Detroit Rock City bridged the gap between shameless self-promotion and long-form narrative, in ways that gave way to commercialized cinema, and while Nimrods follows the same path as its predecessor, exchanging Kiss for Green Day, it’s still a mostly solid addition to the subgenre that was made with a lot of commendable intentions. For starters, while the writing is admittedly awful at times throughout the predictably bland narrative, the individual arcs pertaining to remote conflicts along the way are based entirely from surreal road tales from the band’s experiences, featuring some unique winks and nods to the background of the band that hardcore enthusiasts will instantly pick up on a lot easier than those who aren’t, in turn appraising more creative connectivity to the band than initially expected as executive producers on the project. On top of this, the script does manage to surmise some effective gags in the lowest common denominator of material that kept the repetitious outline of the narrative from setting in a lot sooner to a 97-minute ambitious runtime, particularly between an ongoing joke about the fictional band’s name, which one could smell coming from miles away, as well as logically braindead decisions from each of its members making the road trip to Los Angeles prolonged by many unforeseen difficulties in detours along the way. Aside from the script, the film is shot and produced exceptionally well for being optioned by two studios whom I’ve never even heard of, with some stylistic flourishes in the form of handheld digital camera work and some surprisingly breathtaking scenery along the way that appraise stunning presentational integrity to establishing shots rooted in punk rock anarchism. While it’s still clearly evident that the movie was probably made for less than five million dollars, the rich combination of immersive concert footage, fish eye lens incorporation during character inebriated states, and consistency in editing, allows it to play particularly well on a big screen, without anything texturally distracting to the wandering attention spans of the audience to craft unintentional intrusions to Kirk’s music video tendencies. Beyond the chaos and carnage of a rebellious screenplay and an enticing presentational execution, it goes without question that the film contains one of the best soundtracks of the entire cinematic year, both with a 23-track barrage of supercharged selections from the ever-expansive Green Day 35-year catalogue, but also some unforeseen punk-heavy pariahs who lend so much energized rambunctiousness to the depths of this exhilarating road trip. What’s greatly commendable about the tracks chosen is that they’re not just the typically expected hit songs of their crossover fandom, that have surmised lasting power atop both rock and pop radio, but also some forgotten B-sides that deep-rooted fans like me will appreciate in them getting ample allowance to shine, crafting these tantalizing transitional sequences that bring a lot of emphasized expression to the integrity of the accommodating visuals. As for the tracks outside of Green Day’s wheelhouse, the band doesn’t just pander in self-indulgence, but rather casts a spotlight on contemporary artists of the punk scene with whom the band themselves are fans of, with everybody from Ultra Q to The Paradox lending their significant relevance to the integrity of the engagement, while real vocals involving Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace’s respective on-screen projects not only prove extensive talent for the real-life couple, while also inscribing believability to their outside-of-the-box kind of on-screen opportunity to elicit someone new to each of them. That feels like a great time to transition into the devilish details attained from a highly talented collective ensemble, but specifically Thames and Kylr Coffman, with whom much of the narrative’s focus remains faithfully by the wayside of. Thames’ combination of a cunning cool factor exuding limitless charisma, and somberly stirring dramatic depth, allow a rich tonal elasticity in the evolutions of the material, specifically while confronting his family’s own immense losses, but even when the film remains maintained in comedy, Thames’ fish-out-of-water ignorance and determinative drive offer the most introspective desperation of the character’s situational brick wall in life, where very little else outside of music presents itself for a young man on the brink of both disaster or possible stardom. As for Coffman, aside from the striking resemblance to Green Day drummer, Tre Cool, his supporting turn evokes a lot of adversarial humility and self-destructive tendencies that often make him the brunt of jokes on this rambunctious road trip far from parental eyes, but beyond that a naturalized element of delivery that doesn’t feel emphatically staged or rudimentary rehearsed, allowing his character to feel authentically rendered with enough elements of himself encased to feel like anything other than a character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As previously indicated, the writing is quite cluttered with conveniences and contrivances so thick and distracting that they make it difficult to remain faithfully invested during the broken rules of logic that the movie assembles for itself, but also overwhelming predictability in the depths of a blandly unoriginal exploration that constantly reminds me of better road trip movies before it. On the former, the saturated sloppiness sets in most obviously during scenes of unforeseen uncertainty that introduce some temporarily conflicting tension to an otherwise superfluous journey, specifically where the actions of a previous scene are used to evoke reactions in something following it, and considering the majority of these utilized instances are overcome abruptly in a matter of minutes between characters who are both too dumb to pour the correct kind of gasoline to their vehicle, but somehow smart enough to steal a car, courtesy of its dimwitted driver leaving the keys conveniently in the cup holder as they exited the vehicle, and it soon becomes difficult enough to demean the intelligence of those interacting parties outside of this trio of bandmates, as they become continuously duped by characters outlined as too stupid to understand when they’re being duped by a rivalrous sibling, but even worse when it comes to Tre Cool using his own cell phone to call a band during a meet-and-greet session, in order to set the motions of the plot in development. As for the predictability factor of the screenplay, there’s certainly enough familiarity in the ways this plays out that makes it feel like a hybrid of the aforementioned Detroit Rock City and Grind, but because the script writes itself into a corner with regards to only one specific ending surmising both memorability to its audience, as well as rewarding pay-offs to these characters, it makes it more than fairly obvious where it’s headed, even with some unsubtle aspects introduced frivolously along the way that seem destined for that eventual third act break-up just around the corner. Because so many of these road trip films abide by the same kind of tropes or confrontational cliches that outline transparency to where it’s headed as quickly as the opening act, it underwhelms in the dramatic departments even while the script reaches so heavily on the tenderness of household familial conflicts, in turn offering little less than even expected in the surprise department involving very little wiggle room of creativity before the journey even begins. Aside from these unfortunate aspects, the dialogue itself feels quite pedestrian and unappealingly juvenile, leaving so many of these interactive conversations uncompelling by tastelessly cringe-inducing dialogue that doesn’t appeal to the accessible investment of the characters. While the movie’s title more than conveys accuracy into the kind of personalities we’re ultimately saddled with here, the dialogue’s abrasively jarring outpouring of vulgar vocabulary and crude candidness crafts a consequential obnoxiousness too consistent to effectively ignore, leaving plenty of adversity in the depths of the characterization to overcome, especially during a film that already soaks up a lot of the runtime with soundtrack choices. Aside from my glaring issues with the screenplay, the film also wastes away a lot of its big name talent to its extensive ensemble, with Mckenna Grace, Jenna Fischer and Sean Gunn relegated to glorified cameos. Gunn isn’t so much of a big deal, as his character merely makes a spontaneous appearance as a drunk mechanic during a bar scene, but Grace and Fischer are especially disappointing as a vested love interest and motherly character, respectively, with the former even receiving second-billing to the introductory credits, and considering her and Fischer only appear in two scenes each throughout the duration of the film, their marquee advertising feels manipulative, leaving Thames and Coffman to work overtime towards attaining memorability to anyone involved in its gifted ensemble. Lastly, while much of the production values for the film attain big screen appeal to what’s artistically and conceptually contained, the A.D.R work with some of the vocalizing in post-production feels glaringly evident of touch-ups, specifically during concert footage where the overheard vocals don’t exactly line up with the singer from which they spawned from. This isn’t necessarily a problem if you’re an audience member who loses themselves in the songs rather than the performances, but if you’re someone clamored by lively intense atmosphere, the evidential delays in lip reading instill a distraction that undercuts the naturality of the in-scene singing, especially because consistency of the sound mixing remains razor sharp throughout the editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Nimrods is a road trip rock opera that has just enough gas in its executional tank to reach the intended destination of its 97-minute runtime, featuring a rich combination of charismatically charged performances and a punk-heavy soundtrack of Green Day’s catalogue that helps it overcome some stodgy writing and inescapable predictability. While the film undeniably appeals to band loyalists rather than cinematic risk-takers, Kirk’s televised techniques offer an experimental artistry that transitions seamlessly well to big screen captivity, gifting us a rambunctiously chaotic joy ride that trucks along, even as the film travels down some evidentially familiar roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 6.4 or C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Lee Kirk Starring – Mason Thames, Mckenna Grace, Jenna Fischer The Plot – Three buddies (Thames, Kylr Coffman, Ryan Foust) drive cross-country in a van, causing mayhem and mischief while racing to LA for their big break: opening for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. Rated R for adult language throughout, teen drug […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9824"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9826,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9824\/revisions\/9826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}