"Sunset Strip", on entertainment street

Sunset Strip  
Beefeater In-Edit 2012, Chapter IV

Our fourth music documentary during the In-Edit Festival was the one with less expectations as, being honest, we didn't have any clue about what we were going to find. In that sense "Sunset Strip" was a nice surprise, quite fun and smooth entertainment on one of the most famous (arguably the most) streets on the planet, Sunset Strip, aka The Strip.
 
The documentary proposes a historical ride through the quite wild story of The Strip. From its origins, the not so glamorous road that connected Hollywood studios to a developing area that soon would become Beverly Hills in the roaring '20s, to the new Millennium. There's music, cinema stars, gangsters, hippies, drugs, hair metal, decadence, counterculture, glamour, scary parties, comedy, more drugs, and neon lights.... All is narrated in a very lightweight way, just a glimpse, a little bit of the whole, so the film can keep flowing, peppered by the comments of an impressive number of celebrities (even too many in my opinion) and people who were there (and others who weren't).

"Sunset Strip" doesn't offer any real insight or much substance. For the good and the bad. Some of the opinions are more passionate, amusing or significant than others. It's not the same hearing former mobsters talking about that policeman who made their life impossible than hearing Kelly Osbourne (what?). It's not the same hearing Lemmy or Billy Corgan than Slash (uggh). Johnny Depp (at least he used to be interesting) than Keeanu Reeves. I think you get it now. Also, some parts are way more absorbing than others. The mafia, the story of the clubs or the bloom of live music is much more engaging than the Chateu Marmont's or the comedians parts. But despite being somewhat uneven in the weight of its parts, or its unconventional mixture of footage, opinions, storytelling, live music and animations, it keeps going with fluency. It would be close to being confusing or chaotic, but believe it works because its doesn't attempt to go deeper. 

If something is made clear on the documentary, is that Sunset Strip's story is made by cycles. It's arguable if there's space for a new rebirth of the street today, despite director Hans Fjellestad tries to convince us that the new generations of artists and club owners are injecting new life to The Strip. That sort of latest minute eulogy looks forced, as the director doesn't show us the reasons behind that argument, and doesn't help the film coherency either. But I don't think "Sunset Strip" deserves to be blamed at all. It works just fine as a quite entertaining and pleasant, unpretentious carousel of stories on a very particular street.

SCORE: 6/10

"The Rum Diary", Depp's failed homage to Dr. Gonzo

The Rum Diary

I'm a devoted fan of Hunter S.Thompson, and therefore I loved "The Rum Diary", the novel. Knowing the friendship between Johnny Depp and the Dr. Gonzo, and the personal interest the box office star had on the project, I was really expecting to watch the film. Unfortunately, and although it might work as an entertaining movie, occasionally eccentric, doesn't meet the expectations.

To me it is hard to relate the majority of the film with the book Hunter wrote. It seems to me Johnny Depp's and director's Bruce Robinson main focus was to serve an homage to the writer and American counterculture icon. But I highly doubt the Dr. Gonzo would have liked a tribute that looks and has all elements of a Hollywood blockbuster. A bit of comedy, a romance, a serious plot taken in a very lightweight way, a hero (a bit unusual, but a hero nevertheless) and a happy ending.

If I remember correctly (and I'm pretty sure I do), "The Rum Diary" wasn't a romantic story, which makes the whole affair with Chénault (sorry to say, but Amber Heard role is completely empty) a bit...excessive. Quite frankly, to me the novel was a quite dark one, where drugs, booze, surreal and very dangerous situations gave the tone of an explosive dark comedy. But as I understand from Hunter's literature, behind the grotesque, there was a quite depressive vision of the world. Not to mention that Hunter's period in Puerto Rico was frustrating for him. Something the movie doesn't show at all.  

More worrying issues while watching the movie (comparing it to the book). The disappearing of Yemon's character. The almost irrelevant importance of the "San Juan Star" environment, in particular the local bar (Al's), which on the book was the place where all the newspaper staff gathered and wasted their time. And painfully, the end, miles away from the novel, and really really flat.

Ok, if obviously failed as and adaptation/homage, then let me try to review quickly  "The Rum Diary" just as a film, as if I didn't know anything about Hunter and his novel. Then this is sort of an adventure movie, with an unlikely hero, journalist Paul Kemp (Hunter's alter ego), played with Johnny Depp, who does an ok job, an  impressive cast to benefit from, but sadly not developed to their entire potential, something to regret having great actors as Aaron Eckhart, Richard Jenkins and Giovanni Ribisi, an awkward tone and a plot that weights, with serious problems of balancing, between a political/corruption case and a romance (with loads of alcohol), with director's Robinson deciding to go for the easy one. Did I say the end is flat and disappointing? 

Don't get me wrong. Overall, "The Rum Diary" is not a bad film, but it is unremarkable, and in my opinion, it is fair to say the potential of Hunter's story has been a bit too much for director's Robinson, resulting in a very far from the homage the Doctor Gonzo deserves.  

SCORE: 5,25/10