SUCK DVD Review
SUCK hits DVD and blu-ray on September 28th.
It takes a brave writer to name their movie Suck - you're pretty much daring reviewers to come up with a clever spin on why your movie does just that. It's good for writer/director/star Rob Stefaniuk that his sophomore effort behind the camera is pretty damned good. A combination of a smart cast, some moments of visual inventiveness, and a clever script save the movie from the curse of its title.
A small confession: I was actually prepared to dislike the movie in its opening minutes, thanks to some terrible vampire makeup and worse music but I got over it.
Suck follows a struggling Canadian band called The Winners after their bassist, Jennifer (Jessica Paré), has a fateful encounter with a 300-year-old vampire named Queeny. The band's hapless lead, Joey (Stefaniuk) knows something's off with his ex-girlfriend and current bandmate but he's got bigger problems: their career is going nowehere, they have to sleep in the band's "bus" (a converted hearse) between gigs, and even their agent (Dave Foley) insists they should fire them. But thanks to Jessica's new vampire glamor, people are finally paying attention to The Winners.
It's essentially a musical with breaks in the story for the band to perform and at least one interlude allowing the vampire to croon into the camera. Stefaniuk packs the movie to its gills with musicians (Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Carol Pope, Iggy Pop) and visual references to rock history. Some are very clever, like casting notorious vegan Moby as a Beef, the lead of a Buffalo-based band whose performances are accompanied by meat thrown at them from the audience. Some feel a little strained--for those who've seen it I'm calling out the Abbey Road bit.
But the cast really sells the humor that comes in both the freaked-out and deadpan modes. The film's two secret weapons are Chris Ratz's Hugo, the band's hapless roadie turned disposal expert and Dave Foley's spineless manager, Jeff - both actors get the choicest lines in the film, Foley in particular lends his character that passive-aggressive thing he's cultivated over the years.
The only real bummer is the original music assembled for the movie. Stefaniuk makes some good choices with regards to classic cuts and even a decent-ish cover of Sympathy for the Devil. But all of the music written for The Winners is universally terrible (think under-produced Black Kids), there's so much of it, and it all feels inappropriate for the movie. Stefaniuk also goes a little crazy with the Jacob's Ladder sped-up action effect which stopped being interesting 20 years ago.
Still, the movie thrives on its humor, from Malcolm McDowell's turn as revenge-seeking vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsing, to the final, pitch black crossbow shootout. I should also mention the visually clever stop motion sequences that link the band's gigs and the bloody map that charts their progress across the U.S. and Canada. Sometimes you just see something that clicks and Suck is it.
The Presentation
The movie was shot digitally and as tends to be the case with most lower-budget or indie efforts there's a struggle to get the colors just right. Specifically, the colors in the movie appear a bit more "hot" than I suspected the director intended. While he uses a lot of neons against black for a garish effect, the images occasionally suffer from a halo effect which threaten to overwhelm the scenes. Still, this in no way makes it unwatchable - just not especially pretty.
Special Features
- Making of Documentary "Down to the Crossroards or How to Make a Movie Suck"
- Audio commentary with the writer/director alongside cinematographer Greg Hagey
- Burning Brides "Flesh and Bone Music Video"
Stefaniuk gives some good talk about his movie in both the commentary and the making-of doc.
This release is now at the top of my list for worst cover of the year.
