Simply put, the film is about a more industrious mediocrity and a less-motivated genius.
At the beginning, the mediocre pig's foot Dom looked for music inspiration in the small town with a slightly nervous expression. With the brisk musical rhythm and clean video style at the beginning, the film seems to give us a relaxed and happy life atmosphere.
In such an atmosphere, everything Dom sees in front of his eyes can be turned into any melody or story, which may be a situation that many people who love to create in reality often encounter. Sometimes when you chat with such people, you will find that they are absent-minded and staring at everything around them. In fact, their thoughts have long been scattered by the environment. So chatting with them would be boring to you, because you poured out a bunch of painstakingly long, long-winded conversations to them, and the only possible response was: Huh? What did you just say?
Therefore, their spiritual world is always different from ordinary people, which can also be regarded as a kind of loneliness. They can only really find endless interests and topics to talk about in people who are congenial to themselves; and when they talk about these with ordinary people, they will only be regarded as a kind of brain damage that cannot communicate. Of course, Dom is lucky. Although he usually does a boring job in the office, he happens to bump into the keyboard player of the Soronprfbs band and kill himself by the sea. After that, he also liked music and became the new keyboard player of the band by accident. Although other members of the band questioned Dom's ability, the lead singer Frank always gave enough credit and encouraged and praised Dom's original music from time to time. This kind of support makes Dom very happy, of course, he certainly hopes to integrate into such a quirky band as soon as possible, and is eager to prove that his strength is not "parallel".
A so-called eccentric band, in addition to their rather weird instruments and vocals, the lead singer of the band has always been mysterious. Because he never took off the BIg head doll hood, and the members never saw him in person. As for his background, everyone only knows that he is from a dark place in Bluff, Kansas.
Dom was originally just an ordinary company employee, but because of joining the band, he seems to have rekindled the ambition to be a great musician that has been suppressed in his heart for many years. He often shares the band's life and works on social networks, hoping to get more people's attention and support. The result was also quite smooth, as its maverick style quickly attracted more and more comments and fans. Unfortunately, the music Frank wanted to make never came to fruition; Dom was also constantly worried that he couldn't write a good piece of music, despite trying so hard every day. Finally, the album, which was originally planned to be completed in about a month, took nearly a year to create. Because of the promotion of social networks, they also won a bigger stage for themselves to perform live.
At this time, the problem appeared again. When faced with numerous fan pursuits and media interviews, Frank exposed his weakness of being out of touch with the real world. Dom never imagined that Frank, who was musically brilliant, confident, and composed, would appear so immature, cowardly, and helpless in public. Other members also chose to leave the band because they were dissatisfied with Dom's desire to change the style of music to suit the taste of the public. The predicament at this time seems to have driven everyone to a dead end. In a fit of rage, Dom forced Frank to take off his hood to face his fear bravely, but Frank fled like a frightened child without knowing where to go, and Dom was in a car accident and was admitted to the hospital in the process of chasing.
Instead of giving Dom the time to reflect on it all, the film focuses on Dom's journey to find Frank. During this time, Dom also found several other band members, who were singing songs with no audience in a small bar that was not doing business, and the situation was quite bleak.
Seeing this, it seems that the film also reveals the existing dilemma of some underground musicians: in order to cater to the audience and achieve greater success, they have to make changes or even compromises on their own music; if they insist on their consistent music style, It is also difficult to get Bole or listeners who truly appreciate you, and even survival has become a problem. Two paths, two choices, forcing them to be at a loss and drifting further away on the road to the ideal of music.
And Dom's approach to music is obviously different from Frank's band. What he needs more is not to enjoy the lonely carnival in the niche, but the enthusiastic shouting and recognition of the public. It can be seen that when the band members left and only he and Frank stood on the stage to sing, he enjoyed the feeling of singing his own original music; however, Frank was like a clown, with a red painted With a big face, wearing a little girl's skirt, he stood helplessly listening to Dom's tattered music to ruin his ears, and even fainted exaggeratedly for a while.
In fact, when Dom was looking for Frank, he gradually realized the mediocrity of his musical talent, and gradually realized that the fans on social networks paid more attention to their band's erratic style (Erratic and shit, nervous breakdown). not their music. Perhaps, Dom also knew at this time that even if everyone wanted to be a genius like Frank one day, there was only one he in the world from beginning to end.
However, some geniuses are destined to be lonely and niche. They could have been famous, but they would rather not be red or purple and insist on enjoying their little world of peace and quiet and undisturbed. And some people only want to become a big star one day, but they can't produce satisfactory works and are unhappy.
At the end of the film, Dom took off Frank, who had taken off the doll's hood, to find the band members. When they saw each other, they didn't say much, and there was no surprise in their eyes; Frank just silently took the microphone and accompanied the other members. The tacit understanding of playing, quietly sing songs that really belong to you. Dom didn't stay in that small bar too much, but chose to leave quietly...
Watching this film reminded me of watching a Japanese drama many years ago, "Young Finger Tiger" starring Aoi Miyazaki. It also tells a story about an underground rock band. It's just that the film is more inspirational, and the ending of this film is full of reflection and negative energy. Although the surface records their musical journey, the backside is full of their lonely lives. And loneliness, in this film, is nothing more than two kinds: one is lonely and arrogant, the genius is unwilling to compromise;
When these two types of people collide, although they sympathize with each other because of their common interests, they have different ideals after all. In the end, the road is different, and it is not conspiracy. Just like the line Jia Zhangke said when he made a cameo in the movie "The Future Will Not End": Since everyone is incompetent, please go your own way.
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