Yesterday's Movies

Before watching the movie:

I’ve appreciated Jack Black’s work for a while, and while I haven’t really gotten much into his work in Tenacious D, I have heard some of their bigger singles. But rock culture, even affectionate parody of it, has not been much of a draw for me. So I really don’t have much of an idea of what to expect except rock comedy and they’re probably losers in over their heads somehow.

After watching the movie:

As a teen, JB (Jables) ran away from home because his straight-laced parents didn’t understand or support his passion for rock. Told by a vision of Ronnie James Dio to go find his destiny in Hollywood, JB eventually finds the right Hollywood and meets Kage (KG), a street guitarist who JB is immediately convinced is the best rocker of all time and wants to be his acolyte, though Kage rebuffs him insisting he’s a solo act. JB gets beaten up on the street by hoodlums who eventually decide they’ve had enough and leave, but Kage, witnessing the act, takes credit for chasing them away and takes JB in, telling him he’ll train him in the ways of the rock while exploiting him for work around the apartment, which lasts until Kage’s mom announces to his voicemail in JB’s presence that after fifteen years of trying to become a star they’re finally cutting him off. Since Kage already spent the rent money on a new guitar for JB, JB takes charge and declares that they’re going to form the Greatest Rock Band in History, win the local battle of the bands, and so pay the rent with rock. The only problem is that they need to write the Greatest Song in the World, and they don’t have much in the way of good ideas. But it seems like all their rock idols used the same kind of guitar pick, so they pursue that lead and learn of the Pick of Destiny: formed from the tooth of Satan himself and imbued with the power to grant whoever wields it awesome skill playing anything with strings. The pick currently resides at the Rock and Roll History Museum, the latest in a long line of owners who don’t know what they have. So JB and Kage go to their only superfan, pizza delivery guy Lee, and borrow his car for their epic cross-country quest. There are many who have tried and failed to get past museum security for the P.O.D., and some still see it as rightfully theirs.

I was really into the beginning, the long introduction of Jaybles’ backstory. The music kept going and it was looking like it was going to have a lot of musical numbers carrying the story along. However, after Kage takes in JB, there’s a long dry spell through most of the second act, and it seems like all the music is either incidental to them being musicians practicing, a traditional montage with no lyrics, or a quick interstitial to move to the next chapter. I thought it was a thematic choice to bring down the energy while Kage is abusing JB’s good faith, but it doesn’t really come back until the third act, leaving the second act as just a middling stoner comedy, which is not among my favorite subgenres.

Having to put more thought about what I think of Tenacious D than I ever have before, it’s possible that the disconnect between what I expected from a Tenacious D movie and the result is that the songs have a stronger unreliable narrator element. The guys are telling their story so of course they exaggerate their awesomeness and the quality of the music underscores that. But here they’re a couple of idiot slackers who can’t get anyone to care about their music even though it really is good, and that’s not as much fun to me. I’d at least like to be going back and forth between how they see what’s happening and what’s objectively happening more often.

As I understand it, what’s at the heart of the Tenacious D bit is both deflating the seriousness of rock and metal but also celebrating the good of it, and I think kind of gently mocking how the mythos is built up specifically in the minds of middle and high school boys. So there’s a lot of sexist objectification here that is kind of living in a space between being parodied and being embraced. I think there’s only one woman in the movie who isn’t just there simply as tail to be chased and is mother to neither of them. And that’s kind of uncomfortable 18 years later, but also I’m not sure how much that could be toned down without cutting out an essential element of the bit.

This was an enjoyable movie, but I think I’d enjoy an album or a concert more. I kind of regret having already seen School of Rock without reviewing it now, since given the choice between these rewatching one of these two, I’d go with that one. This was just kind of serviceable. It would probably would be better received by people who are into cannabis or presently altered by it, but I’ve seen better stoner comedies, and unfortunately, better rock musicals.