The Sunset Six

2013 / Director. Jeremy Stanford.

I am friends with a lot of musicians and I know already that The Sunset Six will piss them off. It is a film about musos but its certainly not a movie FOR musos... in fact its incredibly patronising to anyone who plays in a band. However, for everyone else it's a whole lot of fun! The best way to describe it is like The Breakfast Club meets The Commitments. A washed-up rocker form the 80s leads a group of musicians with promises of grandeur and fame. He is stuck in the past and full of empty promises. The film takes place during one of their rehearsals. Holed up together and fed up... emotions are stirred and secrets are revealed. Yeah, it's one of "those" movies but it's delivers a good time. The film could have gone either way for me but thanks to a wonderful performance from Greg Stone in the lead, the story holds together nicely (I adore Greg Stone). He delivers a belter of a performance, even if it is cliched. His reminded me of John Water's character from Heaven Tonight. The rest of the cast are great too with Jamie McDonald, Kristin Holland and Lulu McClatchy bringing an added credibility. First timer Kiki Courtidis is also great on screen as the band's front-woman. Her voice is wow! Amongst the banter between these bandmates, the film busts into some cool little musical numbers. Some covers songs and some original... all really strong. "Send My An Angel" by Real Life is a great moment as well as a revealing rock ballad performed by Jamie McDonald. We don't get a lot of movies like this locally and so, while it's very contrived, The Sunset Six is also something refreshing. Its shot perfectly and features some fantastic panning and tracking shots. It's definitely a good looking movie. Teenagers and those of us who are young at heart should lap it up and for all ye musos... well, suspension of disbelief is a wonderful thing and with it, you might get a kick out of The Sunset Six too. 

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