This is the first film directed by Stephen Wooley, who is better known as a producer, so I want to be kind, but I have to be honest as well. Interestingly, it was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who wrote a couple of the Pierce Brosnan, James Bond films. The movie begins with Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones being pulled out of his swimming pool having evidently drowned.
The film then scatter shoots in all directions and styles. Black and white for flashback scenes in the sixties and color film for trips to Marrakech. But the narrative never congeals. Perhaps if I knew more about the real beginning of the Rolling Stones the film would have more meaning for me, but I never got invested in it. I found the film to drag and to only jump in fits and starts.
There are some unmistakable elements of Nicholas Roeg's style here and that's not a bad thing. At least Wooley is copying from a good director, but the bottom line is he's just copying. It doesn't look like he's learned anything. Also, I found the performances in this film a bit lax and I don't know if that's the fault of the screenplay or the less than inspired direction.
Paddy Considine, who is usually quite riveting is lost here as a handyman who is sent to do some refurbishing on Brian Jones house in the country, and little by little gets caught up in the drugged out world of Brian Jones. The film also shows his character murder Jones by intentionally drowning him in the pool and an end title tells us that on his death bed, the real James Thorogood who Considine plays admitted that he had in fact killed Jones, but there is obviously no way to confirm that now.
The actor who plays Brian Jones has a nice androgynous quality and occasionally shows some creative spark, but again, he remains a total mystery. There had to be something about him that people liked. Damned if I can find out what it is from this film. Is it his musical ability? We don't see it. Is it his songwriting skill? We don't hear it. Is it his long schlong? That we see, but there has to be more to the guy than that.
Is it just because he has lots of drugs around? Maybe, that we see also, but I never quite knew what to make of him and the house builder. Was there supposed to be some kind of opposites attracting kind of thing here? You know, the artist against the workman? I'm not sure, if that was in there, it was very faint. Stoned would seem like a better film if there weren't in fact many better movies about music stars crumbling under the pressures of the business.
For a sublime look at that kind of story, you can't do much better than Gus Van Sant's Last Days about a Kurt Cobain like musician and Sid & Nancy about Sid Vicious and The Sex Pistols.
I give the people who made this high marks for the attempt, but unfortunately the result was a film that dragged and made me feel very bored.
The film then scatter shoots in all directions and styles. Black and white for flashback scenes in the sixties and color film for trips to Marrakech. But the narrative never congeals. Perhaps if I knew more about the real beginning of the Rolling Stones the film would have more meaning for me, but I never got invested in it. I found the film to drag and to only jump in fits and starts.
There are some unmistakable elements of Nicholas Roeg's style here and that's not a bad thing. At least Wooley is copying from a good director, but the bottom line is he's just copying. It doesn't look like he's learned anything. Also, I found the performances in this film a bit lax and I don't know if that's the fault of the screenplay or the less than inspired direction.
Paddy Considine, who is usually quite riveting is lost here as a handyman who is sent to do some refurbishing on Brian Jones house in the country, and little by little gets caught up in the drugged out world of Brian Jones. The film also shows his character murder Jones by intentionally drowning him in the pool and an end title tells us that on his death bed, the real James Thorogood who Considine plays admitted that he had in fact killed Jones, but there is obviously no way to confirm that now.
The actor who plays Brian Jones has a nice androgynous quality and occasionally shows some creative spark, but again, he remains a total mystery. There had to be something about him that people liked. Damned if I can find out what it is from this film. Is it his musical ability? We don't see it. Is it his songwriting skill? We don't hear it. Is it his long schlong? That we see, but there has to be more to the guy than that.
Is it just because he has lots of drugs around? Maybe, that we see also, but I never quite knew what to make of him and the house builder. Was there supposed to be some kind of opposites attracting kind of thing here? You know, the artist against the workman? I'm not sure, if that was in there, it was very faint. Stoned would seem like a better film if there weren't in fact many better movies about music stars crumbling under the pressures of the business.
For a sublime look at that kind of story, you can't do much better than Gus Van Sant's Last Days about a Kurt Cobain like musician and Sid & Nancy about Sid Vicious and The Sex Pistols.
I give the people who made this high marks for the attempt, but unfortunately the result was a film that dragged and made me feel very bored.