"The Last Cool Movie of the Millennium"

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 1999)

I've seen what is pretty much the completed version of this film, and let me just say that I can't stop watching it. The film is basically a road trip/adventure film about four guys who would do anything to get into a sold out 1978 KISS Concert.
What's cool about this movie is that it isn't trying to show off to anyone. The dialogue and ordeals are genuine and believable, yet fun at the same time. For example, when the leader, Hawk (Eddie Furlong) is forced to battle stage fright and endure a drunken striptease before hundreds of drooling old ladies. You find yourself rooting for the characters because, there's a lot of them in us. Whether we wore long sideburns and skin tight shirts in the seventies or are Pearl Jam fans of the Nineties. There's a unity to the characters in this film that the audience will truly bond with.
For a film that's been labeled "the KISS movie", there is not that much KISSTORY here. The four guys in the movie are on a quest to discover KISS. Their devotion for the band helps to shape their characters, but it does not encapsulate them. What is present in the characters is the "attitude" of KISS. The belief that "there is no such thing as failure, only quitting."
The best description I can give of this film is that it's a 50/50 split between "Stand By Me" and "Dazed and Confused"; Two incredible films. The connection works. The film is not flashy and Adam Rifkin's direction plops us into the adventure in a way that doesn't bring light to the fact that it's "just a movie." He creates a wonderful blend between originality and creativity. A KISS fan his whole life, Rifkin and the rest of the cast and crew understand the motivation that drives the four main characters through their car chases and convenience store hold-ups.
The marketing campaign for the film has mentioned the line that one of the stars, Natasha Lyonne once said; "It's the last cool movie of the millennium." Believe it. We live in a society of post-modernism. I, for one, sort of enjoy it. Go see this film in the theatres. See it for four true and honest performances from the young cast. See it for a hilarious scene in the girl's washroom. See it for the kickin' song list that adds everything to the feel of the film. Most of all, see it because when we were kids, all of us, there were no such things as consequences.