The Music Never Stopped | Review

The Music Never Stopped has a few noteworthy ideas going on, but unfortunately this one might feel like going to a music concert and the main act gets upstaged by the fifteen minute opening act. The first wrong turn is putting JK Simmons, playing a retirement age jazz fan father in the 1980s, in a position where he needs to start to educate himself on classic rock—the music of the devil. This film would have made a much better stage play as everything feels highly clichéd, and any kind of nostalgia that would come from the music is negated by the fact that they use the absolute most overplayed (not bad, just overplayed) classic rock songs possible. Music is a sentimental father-son tale that will resonate deeply with some, but it’s really for those who don’t watch a lot of movies.

Lou Taylor Pucci seems like he might be a decent actor, but he keeps picking both similar and awful roles. The attraction to this script is obvious for him—mental patient. In his case, he actually does think the music evil, as he actually blames it for ruining his son’s life. The other is Lou Taylor Pucci only snapping out of his brain tumor induced vegetable state when that classic rock is on. While his counter-part, Simmons in one of his rare starring roles is that actor who thankfully stuck around the profession long enough to grow up to be the dependable JK Simmons we know now. There’s no big reaches for him here, he’s doing it again, and he does a good job. Julia Ormond and Cara Seymour show up to play the doctor and the mother, respectively, nothing notable to say about either of them.

The biggest thumbs up should go to the music supervisor Susan Jacobs for licensing masters and publishing for The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, etc. This is quite the tall order. Music like this is hard to get cleared and quite expensive. I wish they dug in the crates a little bit more and gave us a little more respect for Pucci’s character as a 1960s music fan, instead of just playing the smash hits, but regardless, Jacobs does a fantastic job.

The Music Never Stopped will please older audiences, and some of the less cultured younger ones, but apart from that never make much of a dent. Movies like this will always show at festivals such as Sundance for some reason. Perhaps it’s for the cast. Who knows? They break no ground. They are not the future. They are not even a well-oiled version of the past, just repackaging of it.

Reviewed at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Premieres Section.

105 Mins. January, 21st, 2011

Rating 2 stars