Review: Rock Opera (B)

Rock Opera (1999)
Directed by Bob Ray
Starring Jerry Don Clark, Ted Jarrell, Chad Holt and Paul Wright
MPAA: UR
Grade: (B)

Review by Bobby Nashville

Completely not what I expected! The independent film Rock Opera, directed by Bob Ray is a low budget sleeper hit on DVD. Although it has been sold as a comedy, this is one of those films that is a little hard to categorize. Rock Opera starts off like Slacker meets Cheech & Chong, but it shifts gears midway and the serious nature of the second half makes this a better film than many give it credit.

Rock Opera tells the story of Toe (nice name), an Austin slacker that just wants to sell enough weed to finance his grunge band's upcoming tour. He gets mixed in with the wrong people, makes a few bad decisions, and ends up having to dig himself out of one big hole.

Most of the movie is full of weed jokes and indie music slang. The dialogue is sharp and Rock Opera has some very good performances. I really enjoyed the way that the characters constantly ripped on each other, with realistic dialogue (I would not be surprised if much of it was improvised, it seemed that real).

A slacker film with some unexpected twists, Rock Opera was a pleasant surprise. Check this one out and look for the band Nashville Pussy, who make an appearance.