The Banger Sisters: Movie Review, DVD Review (2002)
9/21/2007 Posted by Admin
Laughing at the past--at last (Originally published 2002)
Written and directed by Bob Dolman, 94 minutes, rated R.
In "The Banger Sisters," Bob Dolman’s dirty little comedy about two former rock groupies reconnecting after decades apart, Goldie Hawn offers at least one answer as to what might have become of Penny Lane--the character her real-life daughter Kate Hudson played in "Almost Famous"--had she remained true to her band-aid roots.
Apparently, she could have become an affable wreck.
In the film, Hawn is Suzette, a free spirit, to say the least, with a tumble of blonde curls and fake breasts out to here who wears her tattoos like a badge and whom you sense has always relied on the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, the kindness has ended. As the film opens, Suzette is let loose into an unsuspecting world after being fired from her longtime bartending job at Whisky-a-Go-Go, a popular West Hollywood nightclub that's allowed her to remain mired in the past through the rock groups of the present.
Out of work and out of money, she drives to Phoenix, where her old pal, Vinnie (Susan Sarandon)--who now goes by Lavinia--is living in a suburban utopia brimming with new money, green lawns and conservative ideals.
For Suzette, the idea that Vinnie is now trying to pass herself off as a respectable soccer mom with two teen-age daughters and an attorney for a husband, is absurd. Vinnie once slept with as many musicians and rodies as Suzette, a fact that earned both women the nickname "the Banger sisters," which Vinnie would rather forget since nobody in her present life knows about her salacious past.
What ensues is a story without surprise--Suzette predictably shakes up Vinnie's life and forces her to question who she's become and all that she's lost along the way.
Thankfully, what makes the film worth seeing has less to do with the story than it does with the terrific chemistry between Hawn and Sarandon, who tear up the set and make an otherwise ordinary script seem almost extraordinary.
With Geoffrey Rush as Suzette's other uptight friend, a failed screenwriter with murder in his heart whom she picks up on route to Phoenix, "The Banger Sisters" belongs to Hawn just as surely as "Almost Famous" belonged to Hudson. She steals the movie from Sarandon, who doesn’t seem to mind. This is, after all, clearly Goldie’s show and, at 57, she proves she still has what it takes to light a fire under the box office.
Grade: B
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Written and directed by Bob Dolman, 94 minutes, rated R.
In "The Banger Sisters," Bob Dolman’s dirty little comedy about two former rock groupies reconnecting after decades apart, Goldie Hawn offers at least one answer as to what might have become of Penny Lane--the character her real-life daughter Kate Hudson played in "Almost Famous"--had she remained true to her band-aid roots.
Apparently, she could have become an affable wreck.
In the film, Hawn is Suzette, a free spirit, to say the least, with a tumble of blonde curls and fake breasts out to here who wears her tattoos like a badge and whom you sense has always relied on the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, the kindness has ended. As the film opens, Suzette is let loose into an unsuspecting world after being fired from her longtime bartending job at Whisky-a-Go-Go, a popular West Hollywood nightclub that's allowed her to remain mired in the past through the rock groups of the present.
Out of work and out of money, she drives to Phoenix, where her old pal, Vinnie (Susan Sarandon)--who now goes by Lavinia--is living in a suburban utopia brimming with new money, green lawns and conservative ideals.
For Suzette, the idea that Vinnie is now trying to pass herself off as a respectable soccer mom with two teen-age daughters and an attorney for a husband, is absurd. Vinnie once slept with as many musicians and rodies as Suzette, a fact that earned both women the nickname "the Banger sisters," which Vinnie would rather forget since nobody in her present life knows about her salacious past.
What ensues is a story without surprise--Suzette predictably shakes up Vinnie's life and forces her to question who she's become and all that she's lost along the way.
Thankfully, what makes the film worth seeing has less to do with the story than it does with the terrific chemistry between Hawn and Sarandon, who tear up the set and make an otherwise ordinary script seem almost extraordinary.
With Geoffrey Rush as Suzette's other uptight friend, a failed screenwriter with murder in his heart whom she picks up on route to Phoenix, "The Banger Sisters" belongs to Hawn just as surely as "Almost Famous" belonged to Hudson. She steals the movie from Sarandon, who doesn’t seem to mind. This is, after all, clearly Goldie’s show and, at 57, she proves she still has what it takes to light a fire under the box office.
Grade: B
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