When Josie and the Pussycats first came out people hated it. And it wasn't exactly unjustified. Hell, I'll say it people hate Josie and the Pussy Cats for the exact same reason why I love it. It doesn't take itself too seriously.
Let's face it the rock and roll band movie has been done to death. Don't get me wrong I still love it but I'm also willing to admit I'm listening covers of the same song over and over again.
... Ain't nothing wrong with that.
What makes version of the story different are what it changes
- What if these were kids who were Rock gods on the weekends but still had to put up with the bullshit at school.
- Or what if we were talking an all-girl group smack dab in the age of cock rock
- Or what if the entire thing is set up to be the fantasy of someone who has admittedly overdosed on the rock and roll mythos.
What Josie and the Pussycats tries to do differently is kind of cool even though it doesn't quite stick the landing. It wants to pull away the artifice and recognize how inorganic a lot of it all is. That's easy if your only target is hyper-manufactured pop where how artificial it is is part of the appeal, but the plot of the movie is literally about how nearly ALL youth culture is manufactured in someway...including itself.
Now the movie doesn't exactly escape that artifice hell it's not even really trying to but still, the underlying message that authenticity itself has become a marketing tool is something that in the age of YouTube people would be wise to remember. And coming from a rock and roll movie where the appeal of the main character IS their authenticity it's damn near revolutionary.
Which is why it seems so schizophrenic. If the movie went all the way with its message it would look into the camera and demand the audience go to the ticket counter to take their money back. Josie and the Pussycats isn't ambitious enough to try to make antimedia media but for what it was it came pretty damn close.
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