The Suburbans

CinematographyMichael BarrettEdited byKathryn HimoffMusic byRobbie KonderDistributed bySony Pictures Releasing81 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$11,130

The Suburbans is a 1999 American comedy-drama film that satirizes the 1980s revival hype around the turn of the 21st century. It stars Donal Lardner Ward, Craig Bierko, Will Ferrell and Tony Guma as one-hit wonder band the Suburbans and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a record company executive who wants to re-establish the band's claim to fame. Ward also co-wrote and directed the film.

The Suburbans premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 1999. It was released on a very limited number of screens (11) on October 29 of the same year, and grossing $11,130, is considered to have failed commercially. Of ten reviews counted at Rotten Tomatoes, all ten are negative.^[1]

Plot

In 1998, Danny, Mitch, Gil and Rory, who were once a long-forgotten, early 1980s one-hit wonder band, the Suburbans, reunite to perform their only hit single at Gil's wedding. After the gig, Cate, an up-and-coming record company executive, approaches them and suggests shooting a pay-per-view reunion show that would eventually re-establish the band's claim to fame. The four, more reluctantly than not, agree and subsequently face the ramifications on their personal lives as the show's production contrasts their former rock 'n' roll image with their now middle-class, suburban lifestyle. It soon becomes evident that Cate is probably the only remaining fan of the band, who, out of a personal interest in the matter, put her own career at stake.

Cast

• Jennifer Love Hewitt as Cate, a record company executive, who wants to re-establish the band's claim to fame
• Donal Lardner Ward as Danny Moran, the Suburbans's lead singer
• Craig Bierko as Mitch, the Suburbans's guitarist
• Will Ferrell as Gil, the Suburbans's bass player
• Tony Guma as Rory, the Suburbans's drummer
• Ben Stiller as Jay Rose, a record company owner
• Jerry Stiller as Speedo Silverberg, a record company owner
• Amy Brenneman as Grace, Danny's girlfriend
• Bridgette Wilson as Lara, Rory's girlfriend
• Perrey Reeves as Amanda
• Robert Loggia as Jules Marcelle
• David LaChapelle as Thorlakur
• J. J. Abrams as Rock Journalist
• Dick Clark as himself
• Kurt Loder as himself
• A Flock of Seagulls as themselves
• Brian Chlebowski as Kenny

See also

• Sugar Town, another "rock-and-roll and relationships"^[2] film released a month earlier, and called by Janet Maslin—in her review of The Suburbans—a "better and more ambitious recent film that [also, in retrospect] had no luck in finding an audience"^[2]

References

External links

• The Suburbans at IMDb
• The Suburbans at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Suburbans at Box Office Mojo
• Keith Bailey's review for The Unknown Movies Page