SPINNING GOLD – Review

The film year of 2022 pretty much ended with a “music biopic”, WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY (at least I’m making it the “year’s end” as it was the last advance screening I attended). It did fairly well at the box office but didn’t come close to the critical and award accolades of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY or JUDY. But that’s not going to halt Hollywood from “mining” this material, and so we’re getting a tune-filled “true” tale at the end of 2023’s first quarter. Oh, but this has a twist in that it doesn’t center around a beloved performer. No, this concerns the head of a record company. Yeah kids, in those ancient days before streaming and downloading, people went to brick-and-mortar stores and bought discs produced by these companies AKA recording labels. And one of the biggest of them in the mid-70s into the early 80s was an “upstart” dubbed Casablanca Records, whose goal was to produce “top of the charts” hits. And for a time they were very adept at SPINNING GOLD.

The name of the company is a knowing wink at their “head honcho”, the flamboyant “schmoozer” who named himself Neil Bogart (Jeremy Jordon), hence he’s no relation to the 40s film icon. After a fluffy bit of fantasy involving the tune “Oh, Happy Day”, and a disastrous “showcase” for one of his (eventual) “super-bands”, he guides us through his early years, bouncing from job to job while watching his hustling pop Al (Jason Isaacs) fail to grab the “gold ring”. He meets his future wife Beth (Michelle Monaghan) while teaching dance lessons at her family’s hotel. Soon after, he’s a promoter for MGM records (even scoring as a singer with a “single” tune), which leads to a big spot at “indie” Buddha Records. But Neil has dreams of his own company, so with a few “shady loans from casino mogul Big Joey (Vincent Pastore), he creates Casablanca Records along with a loyal motel crew/staffers (Peyton List, Jay Pharoah, Dan Fogler, and James Wolk). After “poaching” a few established music stars like the Isley Brothers and Gladys Knight, the team hunts for new “properties”. Giorgio Moroder (Sebastian Maniscalo) has produced a unique sound with a transplanted US vocalist in Germany, Donna Summer (Tayla Parx), but what really interests Neil is this hard-rockin’ band that mixes make-up, kinky black jumpsuits, and pyrotechnics called Kiss. And he’s really, really interested in their manager Joyce (Lyndsy Fonseca). Over the next few years, Neil and his posse dodge creditors, evade vengeful record rivals and sign hitmakers like the Village People, Bill Withers, and Parliment as they ride the roller coaster of fame and fortune. But can Steven keep his professional and personal life from crumbling as the temptations of the time, especially that “nose candy”, lure him into a downward spiral?

Making extensive use of his stage musical skills (the original Broadway “Newsies”), Jordan’s giving it his all to make Bogart an endearing “wildcard”. It all comes together best when Jordan joins the “hitmakers’ during the creative process, especially with Knight (who’d take a “Midnight Train to Houston”), but he flounders when the script tries to get past Bogart’s moral failing, making his repeated defense of his adultery, “It’s complicated”, a lazy punchline. In order to make this complex, flawed character work, perhaps a more seasoned screen presence was needed, though Jordan is a talent on the rise. Monaghan is captivating as the first wife under his spell, but the story jettisons her in the last act, reducing her to Neil’s suffering “doormat”, while Fonseca’s Joyce pushes against the “other woman” label, she’s fair too tolerant of Neil’s recklessness. Isaac’s as the neer-do-well papa drops into the tale randomly, to remind Neil of his roots and to show him that the “apple doesn’t fall far…”. Wolk, List, and Gad are almost interchangeable as Neil’s “funky flunkies” (Gad is the go-to comic “pitbull”), but SNL vet Pharoah is effective as Neil’s “window to reality”. Ditto for another “SNL-er”, Chris Redd as a DJ who becomes the “well-oiled” doorway for Casablanca’s product. Unfortunately, the funny Maniscalo has little to do as producer Moroder, other than affect a low ethnic rumble line delivery. Of the label’s “talent,” the stand-outs are Casey Like as the surly mercenary Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and Parx as the often perplexed but sultry songstress Summer.

Since the person at the heart of this biopic is the son of the main subject (with his other heirs listed as producers, you might think that Timothy Scott Bogart had written and directed an affectionate “fluff piece”, extolling his pop’s genius. Well, there’s a bit of that, though he doesn’t gloss over the “dents and dings” in Neil’s armor. Yup, the high points of his legacy shine through, with some stars getting better treatment than others (why do the Village People only get a minute or so, almost as an afterthought). We’re meant to think of Neil as a charming “rascal”, a “bad boy” made good by out-hustling “the squares”. But mostly his showboating comes off as a flashy arrogance, a grating ‘showboat” constantly pulling fiery magician’s flash-paper out of his pockets (what “money man” would take him seriously). we even get an ongoing “debt or profit” title card for “time jumps”. Like his tricks, Neil and his antics become tiresome over the over two-hour runtime. Ditto for the 70s fashions and facial hair (it’s kitschy, we get it) and the constant chainsmoking (an excuse for the young cast to seem cooler and “edgy”). And could they have picked a more cliched final fadeout tune? Despite its “adult themes” (a recent hyped-up movie ursine would snort it up), this “jukebox musical life story” seems more suited to basic cable TV. The end result is closer to zirconium with the ponderous SPINNING GOLD.

1.5 Out of 4

SPINNING GOLD opens in select theatres on Friday, March 31, 2023