Indie Memphis Film Festival 2011: Saturday Night Gala Screening Movie ‘Losers …

Overall, the movie is amiable and fun, buoyed by a fantastic soundtrack and some wonderful performances by a young cast of mostly professional (i.e., California-based) actors. But it’s a very slight film that is neither here nor there: It’s not crazy or surprising or funny enough to qualify as a cult comedy in the manner of “Rock ’n’ Roll High School” (1979), and it’s not “authentic” or indie enough to satisfy as a slice of weary-musician life, in the tradition of, for example, “Stardust” (1974). There’s a disconnect between the broad caricature comedy represented by ‘fro-headed Adam Herschman (uncredited as Jerry Garcia in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”), who plays the band’s manager, and the naturalistic style of Kyle Gallner (who sort of resembles a shorter and squatter Joey Ramone) as the band’s singer-songwriter-leader. Not much actually happens to The Fingers: Encounter with a transvestite hooker notwithstanding, the “rise and fall” the band experiences doesn’t seem much more eventful than a walk across a pitcher’s mound in a neighborhood T-Ball park. The film seems to lack the presence of a strong, guiding, authorial hand.

The movie opens at a Memphis high school, where a couple of smart-alecks (Gallner and Aaron Himelstein) who prefer Black Flag to Lynyrd Skynyrd are beaten up by a pair of jocks who don’t appreciate their taste in music. Jump a couple of years ahead, and Brian (Gallner, star of the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” remake and Kevin Smith’s recent “Red State“) and Dave (Himelstein, of “Joan of Arcadia”) are would-be punk rock stars, with an obsession for The Replacements. (The unseen Paul Westerberg is a hovering, inspiring presence in the film – a symbol of artistic integrity and commerical success, especialy when it’s pointed out that The Replacements have signed to the same label that is home to Van Halen.)

Brian and Dave find their best chance for rock-and-roll stardom after they recruit a lead guitarist (stocky Billy Kay) and drummer (stringbean Peter Brensinger) from a cheesy heavy metal band. (The metal frontman is played with appropriate gusto by Memphis’ Billie Worley, who taps into his inner Spinal Tap — he suggests the Gerrit Graham character, “Beef,” in Brian De Palma’s rock satire, “The Phantom of the Paradise”). The Fingers’ new rock chops lure a few fans but also girlfriends, including Dave’s loyal Vicky (Aelxia Rusmussen) and Brian’s possibly treacherous Simone (“Drake Josh” graduate Allison Scagliotti), the ex of Memphis indie-rock mini-mogul Miles Monroe (Ashley Springer), of Miles Per Hour Records. 

Aided by their goofy if sincere new manager, the band leaves its bongs, Distemper posters and vinyl copies of “Flip Your Wig” behind, to hit the unwelcoming road. (The viewer at some point might begin to wonder why — except for the plot conceit involving The Replacements — the movie is set in 1986 in the first place: The 7-inch singles, Minutemen T-shirts, bad club gigs and so on could all be happening today; The Fingers might just as well be jonesing for a slot at Gonerfest.)

“Losers Take All” was directed by Alex Steyermark (a longtime movie business music supervisor who previously directed 2003′s “Prey for Rock Roll,” with Gina Gershon), after original director and indie horror auteur Ti West left the project, before shooting began, to make his own “The Innkeepers.” The original story by Ed Bradin and Roger Rawlings was set in Athens, Georgia (home base for REM and the B-52′s), but it was relocated to Memphis, thanks to the influence of producer Mike S. Ryan, a longtime fan of the city whose credits include the made-in-Memphis 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner, “Forty Shades of Blue,” a more elegiac rock/pop journey into Memphis music history. The film’s other producers include Winn Coslick and Andrew Pope, who wrote the screenplay; Pope and Ryan also were producers on Kelly Reichardt’s recent near-masterpiece, “Meek’s Cutoff.”

The movie’s low budget is sometimes too evident. Comic scenes of the band playing to hostile or distinterested audiences at a roller rink and a pizza parlor are so underpopulated that they break the suspension of disbelief; these businesses look like they can barely afford to stay open, much less hire obviously inappropriate entertainment. The sexual discretion and overall PG-13 nature of the antics in this so-far unrated movie also might militate against its acceptance outside of Memphis; lacking grit, “Losers Take All” could use some Roger Corman-style excess. As it is, The Fingers seem to be a fine if surprisingly well-behaved band in search of a story; in any case, the actors are extremely convincing as rock musicians, perhaps because they were coached during shooting by Keith and Memphis drummer Paul Buchignani, in a sort of ”rock-and-roll boot camp.”

The soundtrack includes vintage tracks by such band as the Wipers, Husker Du, the Zero Boys, Bad Brains and the Lyres, to name a few. The film’s “executive music producer” is power-pop great Marshall Crenshaw, but otherwise the original music can be credited to Memphians: The new songs were produced by Scott Bomar, and the score was performed by Bomar, Buchignani and Al Gamble. The music of The Fingers was performed by Keith, Buchignani, Steve Selvidge and Mark Stuart, and Jack Yarber (aka Jack Oblivian) contributed a song. The costume designer was Memphis’ Meriwether Nichols. Incidently, Keith’s own version of “Anyone Can Do It” is available on his fabulous recent album release, “The Man That Time Forgot,” a must-own for fans of smart, Nick Lowe-esque pop/rock.

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