Garage Days (2002)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Alex Proyas

Writers:

Alex Proyas (story) &
Dave Warner (story) ...

Release Date:

3 October 2002 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Drama

Tagline:

What if you finally got your big break and you just plain sucked?

Plot:

The story of a young garage band in Sydney, Australia trying to make it big.

Plot Keywords:

Band | Rock 'n' Roll | Sydney Australia | Coming Of Age | Cigarette Smoking

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Kick Gurry	...	Freddy
Maya Stange	...	Kate
Pia Miranda	...	Tanya
Russell Dykstra	...	Bruno
Brett Stiller	...	Joe
Chris Sadrinna	...	Lucy
Andy Anderson	...	Kevin
Marton Csokas	...	Shad Kern
Yvette Duncan	...	Angie
Tiriel Mora	...	Thommo
Holly Brisley	...	Scarlet
Matthew Le Nevez	...	Toby
Dave Cotsios	...	Sprimp Lead Guitar
Chris 'Skinner' MacGuire	...	Sprimp Drummer
Scott Ryper	...	Sprimp Bass Player

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, drug use and language.

Runtime:

105 min | Argentina:106 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Iceland:L | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Denmark:11 | USA:R | Germany:12 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Enmore, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)

Trivia:

Pia Miranda admitted in a 2002 interview that she could not blow bubbles from bubble gum. The slow-motion bubble that she blows in the film is computer generated.

Goofs:

Continuity: The cigarette that Shad hands Freddy in the nightclub is almost fully burnt, yet when Freddy takes it is full.

Rattle and Roll music, v 1.01

My first reaction was that I need a widescreen copy of Looking For Alibrandi (2000) and that I need it real bad.

*

Then I was noticing how Lindsay Lohan's Freaky Friday (2003) and Just My Luck (2006) seem to be influenced by Garage Days. They are massively different, some who love Garage Days might consider them to be over-sanitised junk but I interpret them as being geared to a no age restriction audience. In that, the only problem I have with the two Linds is the characterisation. For me, Garage days is difficult but the characterisation is nicer.

Just My Luck has a very magical portrayal of luck, someone gaining by way of someone else losing. I occasionally get the impression that every day reality includes some of that sort of magic. Just My Luck mixing that with a warm charm that leads to totally the wrong solution. On the surface it is a happy solution, on the surface.

Garage Days manages to get the ending to be a bit better. Its luck also takes different paths. Gloom, reality can be way too like this too?

*

Around then I was also noticing the music they play. In my user comments I occasionally mention the music in features as if I am not totally inept re views on music. The commentary differs with me on that, according to that I am inept. That song filmed in front of a large live Homebake audience. The feature explains that Homebake is one of Sidney's music institutions.

According to the DVD commentary, never a source to place 100% of one's faith in, these four were mostly totally new to playing this sort of music or most other sorts of music. They were a band of beginners with a bit of training who were playing to an audience who were there to listen to top line groups. Me, I found them to have an aliveness of sound that some more experienced 'grass roots' bands do not have. I really honestly believe that if Pia and Kick and Chris and maybe Brett had continued in part time music then they would have been developing something in which they showed a bit of potential. As beginners they show that they can Rattle and Roll, in time and with appropriate tuition these might easily do better.