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Suckage

Garage Days is Nothing but Annoying Feedback

by Bradley Steinbacher

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GARAGE DAYS In a word: bad.

Opens Fri July 18 at the Varsity.

Alex Proyas' last film, Dark City, was a gorgeous mess of a picture; like an antique chair, it was pretty to look at, but unable to support weight. His new film, Garage Days, is just a mess--an unfunny, occasionally painful clusterfuck of a flick that limps through its 110 minutes of onscreen life.

What's it about? Refer to the film's tag line, which may be the most creative part of the entire endeavor: "What if you finally got your big break and you just plain sucked?" Needless to say, the flick is about a band, and said band is trying to make it big. It also, indeed, sucks--an entertaining premise, I suppose, but one that is completely squandered here. The band is unnamed, and its four members are Freddy (singer/guitar), Joe (guitar), Tanya (bass), and Lucy (drums), and they reside in Sydney, Australia--a fitting locale, given the band's residence in a creative penal colony; the four members can't even muster a gig, let alone a big break.

If Garage Days is about anything, it's about aspirations exceeding talent. This, unfortunately, can also be applied to the film's direction. Visually, Proyas has always had amazing chops, but here, delving for the first time into the minefield of comedy, he is completely adrift. Why would a director who revels in creating other worlds (be they in The Crow or Dark City) turn his lens toward reality? The answer, undoubtedly, is a foolish need to branch out, and Garage Days offers a perfect example of a filmmaker turning away from his strengths in the pursuit of "personal growth." By the time the film ends, whatever talent Proyas' previous works may have displayed appears to have vacated the premises, and all that's left is a ridiculously misguided attempt at rib-ticklin' rock 'n' roll action. Lame comedy, terrible music, and visual flair do not a solid film make--but that is all Garage Days has to offer. One day, hopefully, Proyas will make a complete, beautiful picture. He has that talent. He just needs to once again flee the world as we know it.