SXSW Film Review: Suck
Suck (2009)
SXSW 2010
Directed by: Rob Stefaniuk
Starring: Jessica Pare, Rob Stefaniuk, Mike Lobel, Paul Anthony, Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Dave Foley, and Chris Ratz.
Review by: Britt Hayes
The Winners are a rock band made up of friends Joey, Sam, Tyler, and Jennifer, and managed by douche bag Jeff (Dave Foley). They’re almost-famous and can’t get past it because Joey won’t share the spotlight with Jennifer, who actually has some talent up her sleeve, thanks to their past romantic relationship and Joey’s grudge. But the band’s luck is about to change. After a show one night, Jennifer goes home with a vampire, under the impression that he’s offering her drugs. Instead, he turns her into a vampire, and what follows is a funny story punctuated by appearances from rock legends (Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and a hilarious cameo by Henry Rollins), as the band of friends hit the road, slowly becoming cognizant of the change in Jennifer as she becomes the focal point of the group on stage and off.
Suck is a film about friendship and life in a band disguised as horror comedy. There’s plenty of blood and gore, and some tongue-in-cheek moments with vampire Jennifer and her need to eat. But the real heart of the story is within the band. Jennifer’s vampirism and rise to prominence in the band is a clear metaphor for what happens in bands in real life. Someone gets all the spotlight but going down the wrong path, and band members follow blindly down that path, losing control and sight of their purpose.
Iggy Pop has a great part as Victor, a recording studio manager and veteran of the music scene. He steps up as the voice of reason from time to time, trying to convince Joey that this vampire business is bad news, and money never made anyone happy, especially not when siphoned through nefarious means.
Malcolm McDowell plays a character with a mysterious eye patch and no name, although he is referred to as Van Helsing at least once by a vampire. The love of his life was a musician who was killed by vampires, and he’s out for revenge against the head vampire, called Queeny (real-life musician Dimitri Coats). As these things go, if Queeny is killed, the vampire part of everyone Queeny and his subordinates have infected dies with him, making all right again in the world.
Dave Foley’s sleazy manager Jeff is the funniest part of the entire film. He doesn’t get a ton of screen time, which is unfortunate, but this sadly isn’t the Jeff show. After the screening, during the Q & A, Foley was visibly inebriated and proceeded to brag about his socialist Canadian health care, flipping the audience off and asking “Do the Teabaggers speak for you?!!?!?” It was pretty awesome.
Writer/director/star Rob Stefaniuk (whose previous effort – Phil the Alien – I have not seen) drew on real-life experiences for his inspiration on Suck. The relationships and friendships formed in a band, the problems and conflicts that arise within, and the jealousies when an individual rises above and becomes more famous than the band as a whole. This is a serious story that Stefaniuk manages to bring some light humor to with clever writing and ample comedy. Not to mention the music! This film has some musical in its blood, no doubt, with Queeny the vampire bursting into song during a pivotal scene with Jennifer. It doesn’t come off as a flagrant musical, but more of a music video within the film, even during scenes with the band performing concerts or recording tracks.
As a whole, Suck shouldn’t be as good as it is. It should be cheesy and elicit middling feelings, but it doesn’t. It’s such a charismatic film and it just charms you to pieces. There were moments when I thought that I shouldn’t be enjoying it as much as I was, but the writing is clever, and with the addition of supporting cast members like Dave Foley, the few rock stars I mentioned (and a fantastic cameo I don’t want to spoil for you at all), and Chris Ratz as Hug0 – the band’s very unlucky French-Canadian roadie who steals every scene he’s in and elicited very strong “awww”‘s from myself and the other ladies I was seated near.
No word on US distribution yet, but it will see a Canadian and German theatrical release this year, hopefully followed by some sort of DVD release here in the states.
