TNMC
This site’s design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Down and Out With the Dolls (2003)
Are you a fanatic for slick Hollywood production values? Yes? Stop reading and go away. The rest of you should listen up because this is a film that won't dazzle anyone with its visual style but will impress with its honesty, energy and realism.
The film follows the fictional girl punk band the Paper Dolls. The band forms when local Oregon legend Fauna (Zoë Poledouris) is dumped from her band the Snoggs when her boyfriend/band mate declares himself gay and chucks her out of band and home. Penniless she agrees to join a newly formed band with three young women, Kali (Nicole Barrett), Lavender (Melody Moore) and Reggie (Kinnie Starr) who work worthless jobs while dreaming of stardom. Fauna's a veteran and recognizes the limitations of the band but is quickly surprised by the band's obvious chemistry. Soon the group decides to rent a house where they will all live and practice.
Anyone who has ever worked and lived with someone knows that tensions quickly mount. Kali reunites with a childhood friend Levi (Coyote Shivers), who happens to be the lead singer for the Suicide Bombers, the area's hottest band. He helps them land a record deal. Success is coming all too easy for the Paper Dolls, which has a lot to do with their rapid implosion. Kali and Fauna are constantly at each other's throats, arguing over the direction of the band and Levi. Reggie has a boyfriend but she strings him along while sleeping with every woman groupier who comes her way. Lavender is the most level headed of the bunch but she struggles with a boyfriend offended at the time she devotes to the band. The entire thing culminates in a two day party that is supposed to celebrate the band's debut album but really just seals their fate.
The cast is mostly made up of musicians, not actors. Early on this seems a bad choice as the acting isn't exactly stellar. But as the movie continues we see that what these musicians do bring is realism. They know what this is all like and thus seem completely genuine in their parts. Kali is an idealist, an artist who cringes at the commercialism of her music. Fauna is the veteran. She's seen and done everything except be successful and she is aggressively going after success. Reggie is the one who revels in the easy sex the band's popularity brings her. These sorts of people and these sorts of situations are exactly what young bands run into. Most don't find success and this movie shows exactly why. This isn't a movie about the glamorous side of rock music. Instead it's one that wants to focus on the side of the business occupied by those who just live for the thrill of playing music.
The presence of actual rock musicians gives the film the proper sound too. The songs were all written by Poledouris, who has done the same for movies like Conan the Barbarian, Starship Troopers and Cecil B. Demented. The presence of other musicians like Shivers or Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead in a small role adds the appropriate feel to the cast. Lemmy in particular stands out as a strange guy who rents out Fauna's closet as his home and dispenses advice to the band even though no one can understand him.
The film is clearly shot on video and doesn't exactly shine in a visual sense but it more than makes up for it with its energy and enthusiasm. The cast seems to know exactly what the story is and they make it work perfectly. The best way to describe the film is simply that it's fun. I started out noting all the flaws and by the end just found myself smiling.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
