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Created Jan 09, 2013 10:38PM PST • Edited Aug 24, 2019 10:11PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   David Chase & Little Stevie should’ve released Not Fade Away here in January, instead of at the October film festivals. It coulda been the first great movie of 2013. Instead it’s yet another great movie from 2012.

   OK, that ain’t chopped liver. Still, it coulda set the pace for the New Year, coulda been a contenda.

   That’s because it’s a perfect little Sixties coming-of-age movie from somewhere in the swamps of Jersey. Written and directed by Garden State auteur David Chase, with music mastered by Steve Van Zandt, it features James Gandolfini’s perfectly drawn Joisey Dad. Yes, David Chase & Tony Soprano revisit New Jersey – with Silvio creating the soundtrack. But, they’re rockers this time instead of Sopranos.

   NFA tells the story of Rolling Stones wannabees during the British Invasion. But that’s not how it opens.

   It opens with a recreation of Mick & Keith’s first band meeting and goes heavy on the Stones from then on. The Beatles get some play, but the movie’s young Jersey band is more Blues and R&B. Thus even Charlie Watts gets a cameo, or at least his 1968 doppelgänger does.

   The faux band’s music is played behind the scenes by most of the E Street Band. So on top of Soprano fans, add in Springsteen fans to those who should see Not Fade Away. OK, those two groups overlap. Granted.

   But add in Stones fans. OK, those overlap too.

   Add in fans of Dominique McElligott, the hottest starlet in recent memory, and now you’ve got something. Miss McElligott plays the messed up older sister from a rich family who live on the suburban side of town. We already know she’s gee-orgeous. The kicker is that her character is also really smart … and messed up. You know the common combo – really pretty, smart and rich, a recipe for trouble more times than not.

   Bella Heathcote plays her younger sister and gets most of the female screen time as the lead band-aid. Needless to say, she’s also gee-orgeous and really smart. Of course she’s rich too, since she and her older sister are the daughters of a highly successful adman. Most of us guys never forget sisters like this.

   Chase & Van Sandt’s movie focuses on a defined world: kids coming out of junior-high in early sixties New Jersey, just as the Beatles hit, with the Stones right behind. Said kids form a band, have some success, share a girl, go to New York, some even make it out to L.A.

   Within that box of dreams, they’ve crafted a little cinematic creation as perfect as a Charlie Watts backbeat. It even has the balls to pontificate on the warped worldview of those in it. No need to think outside the box. Time is on your side within it. Yes it is.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   John Magaro convincingly goes from junior-high nebbish to Dylan-Jagger cross. Magaro’s got charisma. Probably not enough to be a leading man, but enough to be worth watching.

   Bella Heathcote’s bright future began early in 2012 as the sparkling ingénue in Dark Shadows. Just 25, she’s gonna be a huge star – bright and beautiful add up to breathtaking.

   Dominique McElligott plays her older sister, an important fact for a growing group of guys around the world. Who’s Dominique McElligott? She’s the one on top in the WikChip next to my MOON review and the one on the right next to my review of The Guard. Get it now? Thought so. She should be a bigger star.

   James Gandolfini delivers a powerful performance as Magaro’s Dad, an old school man not at all happy about his son’s long hair, musical ambitions and nontraditional life. The great Gandolfini quickly makes you forget Tony Soprano.

   Lots of other notables from the large cast.

   • Jack Huston charismatically essays a handsome talented guy who’s convinced he’s a born frontman. John Huston’s grandson and Angelica’s nephew has a bright future ahead of him.
   • Will Brill matches up well with him as a privileged band mate. Same with Brahm Vaccarella, who seems to be a complete newcomer.
   • Meg Guzulescu charmingly plays Magaro’s little sister from age 10 to well into her teens. She also serves as the movie’s narrator.
   • Christopher McDonald perfectly plays their Dad, a Mad Men specimen.
   • Brad Garrett cameos as a New York rock agent. Perfect.
   • Isiah Whitlock Jr. delivers a perfect little turn as the aspiring rock star’s day-job work buddy, a fellow ditch-digger. Whitlock is always a pleasant surprise, for instance in Cedar Rapids.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    Superior music. Little Stevie done himself proud, having written the mythical band’s music, played it and picked out the TREMENDOUS SOUNDTRACK. Played it with Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent and Bobby Bandiera that is. Most of the E Street Band plus a Jersey legend, IOW.

    Add in an observant screenplay that captures seminal baby-boomer experiences. David Chase fully uses two coming-of-age stories – two families, one large, Italian and tight, the other bitching rich. And tight.

    David Chase – writer and director. Monstrously impressive.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Music for the movie’s band – known as The Twylight Zones – is played by Max Weinberg, Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent and Bob Bandiera — three core members of the E Street Band and a Jersey Shore sound legend.

    Two things about the WikChip video: It’s not in the movie. Second, it’s a rarity of the Stones on live TV in ‘64, just the sort of thing that galvanized Not Fade Away’s American kids.

    Gotta love how Brian is fully alive, more Stone than Mick even.

    The girls started going wild and haven’t stopped for 50 years.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.3

    Sex and drugs and of course rock-n-roll play a part in Not Fade Away, though each is rather mild. Lots of smoking, licit and otherwise.

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    Not Fade Away marinates in the rebellious rock attitude that believes America is more flawed than exceptional, more guilty than liberating. Never mind that rock – the exceptional music of personal liberation – could only have been born in the USA.

    Thus reality belies the punk bullshit spouted by the kids in Not Fade Away. While a disappointment, this isn’t a surprise given that Not Fade Away venerates the Rolling Stones, those hypocritical pop sensations.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.3

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0