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J.K. Simmons Will Wreck Your Tear Ducts

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (11)

simmons2.jpg

The first film that Seth and I saw at the Sundance Film Festival this year was The Music Never Stops, and while it was good and sweet and lovely, it got lost among scads of better, more original, more daring films. But it shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s based on a true story chronicled by the brilliant Oliver Sacks, about a kid estranged from his parents in the 60s. Twenty years later, he’s diagnosed with a brain tumor, which precludes his ability to form new memories. Everything from 1970 to the present is simply missing from his brain, and the only way to wake him up is to play 60’s music, which brings him back to that time. Problem is, it’s also when he and his parents had a falling out, a falling out attributed in part to that music, specifically The Grateful Dead. It’s not the version of his son that the father wants.

The Music Never Stops has a bit of a made-for-TV-movie quality to it, but J.K. Simmons is phenomenal, and despite your best efforts, he will make you sob by the end. Sob hard. It’s one of those hardened Dad movies, like Chris Cooper in October Sky. Hardened Dad movies, despite their often manipulative nature, never fail to elicit the weepies.

The lead here is played by Lou Taylor Pucci from Thumbsucker and he’s practically unrecognizable in this movie.










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Comments

Schillinger making my heart break is something I must experience.

Posted by: PaddyDog at February 8, 2011 12:15 PM

I'm sorry, but ever since Oz I just can't see JK Simmons as anything but a scary neo-Nazi. Even the Farmer's Insurance commercials make me feel all icky. Same thing with Ted Levine and everything he's been in since Silence of the Lambs. They can't fool me. I know what they did.

Posted by: Kristen at February 8, 2011 12:17 PM

I'll see your JK Simmons in Oz and raise you a Stephen McHattie in Life with Billy.


Posted by: Mrs. Julien at February 8, 2011 12:28 PM

Dr. Sacks' books, like "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat," are amazing reads. It's astonishing how many ways the brain can fuck with the mind. Dr. Sacks himself has face blindness, makes his work all the more remarkable.

I would consider taking Mrs. , to this but she has a cousin whose ability to form new memories was obliterated in an operating-room accident many years ago. He was around, 19, 20 at the time, and has been confined to a nursing home for maybe 30 years since. He can remember stuff from before the accident but nothing from after.

Saying, this might hit just a little too close to home.

Posted by: , at February 8, 2011 1:09 PM

Does anyone know how old Cara Seymour is? It's very impressive how she appears to have a 30 year age range in the parts she plays.

Maybe her success is partly due to keeping her age off the internet, so that no casting director on the planet can pigeon-hole her.

Posted by: Simon at February 8, 2011 1:54 PM

Oliver Sacks is made of awesome. A friend of mine is one of his patients.

Posted by: Jerry at February 8, 2011 2:02 PM

Oh god why am i tearing up at this trailer
excuse me

Posted by: Jim Doggie at February 8, 2011 2:56 PM

This looks so amazing.

Posted by: grace b at February 8, 2011 3:35 PM

The cool breeze came on Tuesday...

Posted by: icecreammang at February 8, 2011 5:46 PM

I just love JK Simmons, but this looks sappy as all get-out. I'm definitely not tearing up, no sir.

Posted by: Girlnone at February 8, 2011 8:37 PM

"Practically unrecognizable" is right. That fake beard, or real beard that looks fake, is not doing it for me.

But what an affliction--a lifetime as a dead head. It reminds me of a quotation from "Nothing Sacred": It's kind of startling to be brought to life twice - and each time in Warsaw!

Posted by: Janis at February 8, 2011 11:42 PM