Fall Away: Cannes 2011 Review

1:52 PM PDT 5/26/2011 by Duane Byrge

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The Bottom Line

Boring, behind-the-scenes drama about a truly bad band.

Venue:

Cannes Film Festival, Market

Director-Screenwriter:

Julian Grant

Cast:

Grant Stokes, Nathanael Card, Erinn Strain

A minor-key drama about a country-ish band on the verge of making it, this slow-paced dirge will strike only low notes with exhibitors.

CANNES - Fall Away will fade away fast. A minor-key drama about a country-ish band on the verge of making it, this slow-paced dirge will strike only low notes with exhibitors.

•Cannes Film Festival 2013

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Set primarily in Chicago where a Tennessee-based band completes a Midwestern tour, Fall Away is in the tradition of such backstage-with-the-band yarns as The Commitments. Although generically related, it's a poor cousin and, worse, has very lousy music: The band's strummy, thin sound is uninspiring.

Told in tedious flashback after its opening riff of the lead singer’s (Grant Stokes) murder in a Chicago alley, Fall Away painstakingly repeats the same-song story refrains throughout; namely, it connects all the inner personality dynamics of the band members’ lives. Overall, the relationships are not all that novel or interesting.

On a similar note, the acting is also humdrum with no character stepping up to solo level.

Filmmaker Julian Grant’s storytelling is en retard throughout, further drained by his banal dialogue.

Venue: Cannes Film Festival, Market

Production company: Colifilms Diffusion

Cast: Grant Stokes, Nathanael Card, Erinn Strain, Robert Tobin, Ryan Redyea, Ali Goodman, David Golan

Director/Screenwriter: Julian Grant

Producer: Boris Wexler

Director of photography/editor: Julian Grant

Production designer: Jodi Hayes

Music: Martie Marro

No rating, 93 minutes