"Walk Hard" more than Cash parody
I hesitated to see "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
You see, I'm a huge Johnny Cash fan. "Walk the Line" is sacred. And when I saw the trailers for "Walk Hard," it just looked like a spoof of my beloved-pseudo-biopic.
But now I can tell you that if Johnny Cash could see "Dewey Cox," he'd be laughing as hard as anyone else.
The movie follows a similar plot, but attacks everything and everyone in the music industry. Writer Judd Apatow and writer and director Jake Kasdan leave no pop culture stone unturned, attacking every classic singer, song and movie with severe hilarity.
This movie avoids the classic pitfalls of parodies by relying on John C. Reilly's comedic presence to blow the standard gags totally out of proportion. Further, the new music created for this film manages to be structurally sound and time-appropriate, while also devastatingly funny.
When Reilly sings, "Love a Negro," it's grand. It only gets better for the deliciously raunchy, "Let's Duet." Exaggerated pauses and incorrectly emphasized syllables take standard song lyrics to dirty new heights. My favorite? Dewey: "I'm gonna beat off...........all my demons." Darlene: "That's what loving Jesus is all about."
The almost-June-Carter character Darlene Madison provides a great outlet for Jenna Fischer of "The Office." Surprisingly, Fischer's voice is unusually pleasant to listen to. She's beautiful throughout the movie, thanks in large part to an ambitious wardrobe department.
Debra McGuire's costume design is outrightly phenomenal. The frequently changed costumes are elaborate and well-executed. Alone, the costumes could set the time period and identify the performer being parodied. This isn't to say that Reilly is clothed. Despite his magnificent wardrobe, he spends a majority of the movie in his underwear.
The more you know of music movies, the funnier this movie gets. There are pokes at "Ray," "The Temptations," "The Buddy Holly Story," "Great Balls of Fire!," "Almost Famous," "Yellow Submarine, "La Bamba" and Bob Dylan's "Renaldo and Clara." I'm certain there's more, but those are the only glaring ones that caught my attention. Picking out each subtlety could take days.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
America loves Dewey Cox! But behind the music is the up-and-down-and-up-again story of a musician whose songs would change a nation. On his rock 'n roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 22 kids and 14 stepkids, stars in his own '70s TV show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to--and then kicks--every drug known to man. But despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman--longtime backup singer Darlene.
And the number of cameos alone make a good evening of laughter. Could there be a worse, or funnier, person to play Paul McCartney than Jack Black? Who cares? It's a riotously funny casting, especially with Jason Scwartzman as Ringo. And Playmate Deanna Brooks appears, possibly, less-clothed in "Walk Hard" than she did in any Playboy production.
Former "Ladies Man" Tim Meadows of "Saturday Night Live" deserves a special mention for his role as Sam, Dewey Cox's drummer. The "token black man" role is amplified in "Walk Hard." Meadows manages to be one of the funniest characters in the film while "playing it straight" throughout.
Despite a few moments of horror when male nudity ungracefully enters the frame, "Walk Hard" is a parody near-mandatory for music lovers. Besides, the performance of the movie's theme song by Lyle Lovett, Jewel, Jackson Brown and Ghostface Killah has set the bar for parody music.
Start to finish, "Walk Hard" doesn't miss a beat. It's a delightful treat for anyone who's watched a movie skeptically or anyone obsessed with music trivia. "Walk Hard" is easily one of the funniest movies of 2007 and 2008.
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