I'm Cool, Honest!

Rating: 4/10 (29 October 2003)

Well get this, kids. Hip indie record story is threatened by The Man (i.e. a proposed take-over by a big, and therefore evil, music chain). The manager isn't helped by on of his employees gambling away his buyout funds, the rest of them spending most of their time pratting about or the visit of a superannuated rock star. But, after a few predictable bouts of teenage angst, everything somehow ends happily in a big party.
It's actually quite hard putting down a film which so desperately wants to be liked, and which features some of Hollywood's brighter young things (Angeline Joly etc.) There are also a couple of good moments and a smattering of fine lines. Unfortunately it shares the common Hollywood misconception that record shop employees are impossibly cool and they and their customers keeping breaking out into spontaneous dance. And most of the scenes not irritating are soppy. And for such a supposedly happening film, its soundtrack is frankly lame. (No Nirvana or Pixies but plenty of Meatloaf and, for Christ's sake, Dire Straits). And all along you are wishing Kevin Smith had scripted it so the annoying bits would be replaced by, well, funny ones.