| On paper it sounds
horrible. A cast of virtual unknowns, a director
(Adam Rifkin) whose biggest hit was The Chase,
a story thinner than even Runaway Bride,
and the debut script from a guy (Carl V. Dupré)
who was the assistant editor of classics like Top
Dog, Leprechaun 2 and Barb Wire.
Did I mention that it also was about KISS?
Despite all of this, Detroit Rock City is
surprisingly fresh and funny. The meager
plot, which evokes memory of another guilty
pleasure, The Ramones’ Rock ‘n’
Roll High School, involves four Michigan shop
class squares from Robert F. Kennedy High who
desperately try to attend a KISS concert in
Detroit. Of course, they also have their own band
– Mystery - that have had only one ill-fated
gig during which singer Hawk (Edward Furlong, Pecker)
got stage fright and passed out. Much of the
film’s focus is on Jam (Sam Huntington, Jungle2Jungle),
who finds his musical tastes clash with his
mother’s (Lin Shaye, There’s
Something About Mary) religious beliefs
– she’s even a member of M.A.T.M.O.K.
(Mothers Against the Music of KISS). Rounding out
the foursome are Trip (James DeBello, TV’s The
‘60s) and Lex (Giuseppe Andrews, Never
Been Kissed).
Set in
1978 amongst the height of KISS hysteria, Detroit
Rock City opens with a wonderful montage of
‘70s pop culture images that run over the
opening credits. We learn that the four
protagonists have tickets for that night’s
concert, but those tickets are discovered by
Jam’s mom, who immediately burns them and
enrolls her son in a private school, St.
Bernard’s Veil of Tears.
When
Trip wins four front-row-center tickets from a
radio contest, he, Hawk and Lex ditch class,
narrowly escape Elvis the school security guard
(who resembles Wolverine from The X-Men),
and proceed to bust Jam out of his Catholic hell
by lacing the headmaster’s pizza with
hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Their
drive to Detroit is marred by an ugly incident
involving a gold Trans-Am containing four
disco-loving Italians – one of which
(Natasha Lyonne, American Pie) ends up
riding with the boys. Once they arrive in the big
city, adventures include a male strip club,
convenience store robbery, sex in a church
confessional and a pack of angry junkyard dogs,
as well as romantic interests in the form of
Shannon Tweed (Mrs. Gene Simmons) and Melanie
Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures). By the way,
Lyonne and Lynskey are respectively named
"Christine" and "Beth," both
names of KISS songs.
The
picture’s ending includes a live pyrotechnic
performance from KISS (the actual original band),
which will leave any red-blooded American between
the ages of 30 and 40 squealing with delight. At
least those Americans that didn’t own any
ABBA records.
1:32
-  or strong language,
drug use, nudity and sex-related content
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