Walk Hard: The Story of Dewey Cox

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2009)

Spoof movies have been around for as long as the art form of film has been entertaining people. From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen to the Marx Brothers and Mel Brooks, film makers have been spoofing other movie forms to satirize society and politics. Spoof movies have made us laugh while also showing us the error in our ways and the inherent stupidity found in our societal ways. Unfortunately, the form has taken a beating with the "(Insert Genre Here) Movie" series which has driven the genre into the mire. But when Judd Apatow joined with Jake Kasdan (a co-collaborator on Freaks and Geeks and Zero Effect), what they came up with should have turned the genre up on it's ear.
After the accidental halving of his brother, Dewey Cox learns how to play blues guitar and starts writing songs. At the age of 14, he insights a riot with the song "Take My Hand" and leaves home to seek stardom. Dewey's discovered by Jewish businessmen in a club where black folk go to dance erotically when Dewey fills in for the regular act when he gets laryngitis. Making a huge splash with his first single, Walk Hard, Dewey goes on the road and we follow him through the ups and downs, the relationships, the drugs, and the destroying of multiple public and private bathrooms.
Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow do a great job of making this movie feel like a real biopic and not just a series of skits formed together to make a movie. They present each time frame with real authenticity, injecting the 60's with the whimsy we've seen in past movies, and the 70's with the "grooviness" we've come to expect of this kind of movie. The music feels authentic as well, feeling as if it's been written throughout the time frames seen in the movie.
But you don't go into a parody for the dramatic elements, and for the comedy this movie has great pedigree. It fits in handsomely with other Apatow comedies like Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. John C. Reilly, fresh off Taladega Nights, shows off more of the comedic chops that he had shown in that movie, while also bringing a dramatic pedigree to the role not typical to this kind of comedy in recent years (he was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Chicago). On top of that, it seems as though everyone in Hollywood wanted to be involved in this movie as this movie boasts one of the largest lists of cameos I have ever seen in a movie including Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Jack White of the White Stripes, Lyle Lovett, Jewell, Tim Meadows, Justin Long, Kristen Wiig, Craig Robinson, and Jonah Hill just to name a few.
As with any biopic, whether real or fake, though, this movie seems to loose it's away as the main character loses his way as well. It becomes more frenetic and loses pacing later on, but seems to catch itself before straying too far. Also some of the characters are underdeveloped as usually happens in biopics as you try to cram in characters that truly effected the main characters life. Luckily, the movie never feels as though it's dragging, and remains consistent with the laughs throughout.
While Walk Hard was a critical hit, it unfortunately, it bombed at the box office where it deserved more of an audience. I highly recommend giving this chance if you like comedy and musician biopics. While funny, the movie never feels as though it's making fun of the people presented in the biopics it's skewering like Johnny Cash or Ray Charles. A word of warning, as with any Apatow flick one can expect a large amount of vulgarity including full frontal male and female nudity, a lot of cursing, and more than one person getting cut in half, so this may not be a movie you want to watch in front of the children. For those of you who can get around the aforementioned vulgarity (or embrace it as I do) you will be justly rewarded!