Synopsis
Set in suburban New Jersey in the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big.
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Cast
- John MagaroDouglas Damiano
- James GandolfiniPat Damiano
- Bella HeathcoteGrace Dietz
- Jack HustonEugene Gaunt
- Will BrillWells
- Dominique McElligottJoy Deitz
- Molly PriceAntoinette Damiano
- Isiah Whitlock Jr.Landers
- Brad GarrettJerry Ragovoy
- Christopher McDonaldJack Dietz
Recommendations
- 100
Time Out
It isn't until the story reaches its fancifully abstract final passages, where cinema displaces music as Douglas's weapon of choice, that Chase's reverie reveals itself as a particularly exceptional exploration of how art ceases being an idle hobby and becomes an obsessive vocation. - 90
Village Voice
It's a small gem with a killer rock soundtrack, well worth seeking out amid all the awards-season Sturm und Drang. - 88
Slant Magazine
Triumphs when David Chase's empowerment as a kind of autobiographical historian is balanced with the thrill of submersing the viewer in the tidal pool of his memories - 83
The A.V. Club
Chase deals with the mundane reality that squashes those dreams, but he doesn't downplay the dreams themselves, which he keeps honoring throughout Not Fade Away, right up to an audaciously abstract final scene that rivals the end of "The Sopranos" for sheer nerve. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The film may be too meandering for mainstream acceptance, but its focus will make the Paramount Vantage release connect directly with many baby boomers. It's also a warm, funny, poignant scrapbook that evokes a spirit of youth still relatable in later eras. - 75
Rolling Stone
His (Chase) ardent, acutely observed debut makes him, at 67, a filmmaker to watch. - 58
IndieWire
It's a period piece composed of familiar pieces, none of which have much to say beyond surface elements that have been explored countless times before. Using a typical coming-of-age mold, Chase turns cultural ephemera into formula. - 50
NPR
Music drives the movie, and the producers popped for the real stuff: Robert Johnson, Moby Grape and - curiously - the Sex Pistols are all here. The soundtrack is so overstuffed that it relegates Beatles and Dylan tunes to the end credits.
