Rating: 3/5
Birthday Movie Year Challenge 2
Lemmy rides his motorcycle to Angel’s apartment. He needs her help on a song he’s writing called “Van Gogh’s Ear.” They perform in a shitty rock band together.
Meanwhile, four men in a car hand a guy in a Santa suit an automatic weapon. The Santa drives his motorcycle by a convenience store, killing Joe Green and his wife and leaving their infant daughter crying. The Santa display behind them collapses, and the sign reads SATAN on the ground.
One of the men in the car, Tanas, finds Lemmy in the dressing room after a show. Lemmy knows Tanas as the guy who managed another band called The Red Dogs. That is until the lead singer and his girlfriend got in a fatal wreck. Tanas offers his money and services to help his bang break out.
Lemmy doesn’t consider it until the record company locks them out. He goes to Bar Sinister, Tanas’s joint, receiving one final warning from a guy at the bar before going through the door, down into the red halls, until he finds Tanas engaged in a chess game. Tanas shows Lemmy a contract for Lemmy’s immortal soul but settles on a handshake.
It’s a tale as old as time — a musician trades his soul for musical success. What I like about this rendition is that Satan’s gang are all a bunch of morons with automatic weapons.
It’s meandering, and the B plot of Sally getting revenge is way more interesting than Lemmy turning into David Byrne. But it has fun moments.
** Stray Thoughts / Spoilers **
- The guy dead on an END sign
- Just like every rock show, a guy smashes a watermelon on his face, and another guy walks around beating folks with chains
- A kid at the bar drinking a beer
- — Do you remember the Beatles? — No, I don’t know them.
- Spike’s ranting philosophy at Angel is peak dude.
- “Get drunk and be somebody, brother.”
- “What, I came all this way to fuck a dead guy?”
- Daytripper played on tuba
- The disembodied hand that waves when someone passes