Grief. Something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. Whether it’s for something as small as a great TV show ending or something as big as someone you love passing away. There’s no avoiding it, we all experience it at some point. And we all deal with it in different ways.
Ladies and gentlemen… “Rudderless”.
While going through a downward spiral, grieving father Sam (Billy Crudup) finds a box of songs that his son had recorded before his death. So with the help of these songs and a young man named Quentin (Anton Yelchin, R.I.P), Sam starts a band to try perhaps find some catharsis in his life. And from this we a plot that really got to me. While one of the central themes of this movie is grief, it doesn’t have a somber and depressing feel. It moves between the heavier and the lighter moments very well, never lingering too long on one or the other. There are ups and there are downs, just like in real life. And I think that this plot was overall very well handled.
The characters in this movie are interesting, entertaining, and feel very real. Billy Crudup is great as Sam. He’s a very damaged individual who’s starting to maybe find a purpose in life again, and Crudup plays that so fucking well! Anton Yelchin (may he rest in peace) plays the young man that Sam befriends early on in the movie, and he is great in the role. Laurence Fishburne plays the owner of a music store and he is really good in the role. Felicity Huffman plays Sam’s ex-wife, Emily, and she’s great. We also get Selena Gomez popping up at a few points in the movie and she actually did a really good job. All actors were really solid in this movie.
The score for the movie was composed by Eef Barzelay and it was really good. However, while the score he composed (the background music to be more precise) is really good, I want to talk about the music that’s sung/performed in the movie. The songs overall are fucking great! What’s even cooler is that they were actually performed by the cast. When you see Billy Crudup on stage with a microphone and a guitar, he is actually performing it. And you can tell that with every person performing a song in the movie. And it all sounds great. So yeah… this movie has some great fucking music!
This movie was directed by William H. Macy, And for a first time director, he did a really good job. The shots look really good and the scenes in the movie flow really well. Macy really had a lot of energy in his directing. Not energy like when you direct a snappy and cool action movie, but energy as in the movie never grinding to a halt or getting boring. He really did a solid job!
This movie has gotten some slightly mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 62% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 52/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,5/10.
“Rudderless” perfectly balances the line between drama and comedy, making for a pretty great movie. It has a great plot, really good characters, great performances, fantastic music, and really good directing. Time for my final score. *Sing along*. My final score for “Rudderless” is a 9,67/10. So it of course gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.
My review of “Rudderless” is now completed.
Billy Crudup can play music and William H. Macy can direct a movie… The world’s full of surprises.
TheMarckoguy 