"Not Fade Away" is the last movie that I've seen with the magnificent, beloved James Gandolfini...RIP Tony Soprano. And in "Not Fade Away", he plays another New Jersey father, just not one who is in the Mafia.
Gandolfini plays the father (Jim) of Douglas Damiano (played by John Magaro). It's New Jersey in the 1960s and like most teenagers at this time, Douglas likes rock & roll, most notably the bands that made up the British Invasion (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, etc.). And like many other teenage boys, he wants to join a band. Why? Because he wants to get a girl to like him, why else? He finally gets his chance to be in a band when his friend Gene's (played by Jack Huston) band's drummer gets shipped off to Vietnam. The band members continue to fluctuate with Gene (as the lead singer), Wells (played by Will Brill) and Douglas being the core of the band. Douglas eventually unseats Gene as the lead singer which not surprisingly causes tension in the band. Douglas also "gets the girl" (Grace, played by Bella Heathcote), but the band continues to have ups & downs and never really get it together enough to gather much steam.
This movie has some good music and gets off to a good start. However, it kind of fizzles out and turns a little too dark for its own good. With the 60s and rock & roll as its backdrop, it had a lot of potential to be much better than what it is. It does a good job of portraying young men's dreams of making it big and the reality associated with that. While this is not a bad movie by any means, I felt myself wanting more from it.
"Not Fade Away" could have been so much better...6.0/10 stars
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