philosoraptor42

Good Vibrations (2012)

I was a little worried when this seemed to be trying to be quirky at the beginning. There's a strange little sequence to indicate that our protagonist lost an eye when he was younger and an insistance that he will see the world differently as a result. (Actually missing an eye means that, through that eye at least, you won't be seeing anything. But let's move on.)

This is a film based on real life and our protagonist is Terri Hooley who ended up being a really important figure in the music scene in Ireland at the height of 'the troubles'.

The situation in Ireland seems to be very easy to misrepresent on film, so it was good here to see people with a real handle on how things actually worked. (As much as I love the series "Burn Notice" the episode where Fiona meets back up with one of her old IRA pals was pretty cringeworthy. The writers seemed to have absolutely no conception of how horrible the situation in Ireland really was and wanted to make it a matter of 'good guys' and 'bad guys' rather than a horrifying mess.)

Terri (played by Richard Dormer) finds that his friends get pulled into either side of the conflict in Northern Ireland and he generally finds that he's too left-wing for either of them, making things pretty dangerous. Early in the film he falls in love with Ruth (played by Jodie Whittaker from "Attack The Block" and "Venus"), but Terri decides that they are not going to leave Belfast. They are not going to let the violence stop them.

This is where this film does something that only a biopic can really achieve. Something happens which you would normally dismiss as being too ridiculously far-fetched and yet it really truly happened. Terri buys up a shop in the most-bombed half mile in the whole of Europe and calls it "Good Vibrations". He does not care about the gravity of his decision. He has a big smile on his face the whole time. He is convinced that if he re-introduces the joy of music to the people of Belfast (and he particularly points out Reggae as a good source of joy, though we actually hear very little Reggae over the course of the film, even this early) then he can help to turn the tide and bring people together.

It's crazy. There's little reason why this record shop should succeed. But Terri is a very interesting character because you can see how he'd be forward-thinking enough to buy up and organise a record shop, but not forward-thinking enough to worry about all the things that could go wrong.

What's even crazier is that what feels like it must be the beginning of a tragic story, is actually a success story (mostly). There's a wonderful style of filming going on in "Good Vibrations" and wonderful acting. There's also a very interesting contrast between the upbeat attitude of Terri and genuine footage of nightmarish violence going on around him. We run into some British soldiers at one point and they find it completely bizarre that Terri should have Protestants and Catholics riding around together with him. In fact, we need that scene in order to make clear this important truth that for most of the time we are following Terri is generally unstated. He really does create a space around him where, as far as possible, none of the violent rivalries in Belfast matter.

There are some wonderful moments in "Good Vibrations". Our protagonist's discovery of punk rock is beautiful. The importance of John Peel to the story is rather fun. Seeing the way Terri tries to introduce people across Northern Ireland to punk rock and the way it is embraced in order to both bring joy back into their lives and yet protest the various authoritarian figures surrounging them makes for a very interesting and compelling message. Overall, there's just something extremely sweet about "Good Vibrations" in spite of its depressing setting and even though it never lets you forget where all of this is taking place.

As with any biopic, the problem is where to end it. I think that considering the upbeat style of the storytelling it should be fair to note that they do not follow the overdone trope of finishing with Terri's death. Of course, one somewhat follows from the other. This story is not a tragedy and so it doesn't need a tragic ending. I would still note that it was unclear to me why we finished the film where we did, but it was pretty satisfying.

My biggest criticism is probably that they didn't flesh out Jodie Whittaker's character enough. Her role for most of the story seems to be to get upset because she is neglected when Terri is too busy with his various achievements. It felt like we could have done with seeing what she is up to while Terri is away and getting more sense of her as an independent figure in her own right. The nearest we really get to that is seeing her trying to act as a truancy officer, but that's a very throwaway part of the film and we don't really see her interact with anyone in that job. When you have such a great actress in the role it seems strange that the part isn't more fleshed out than this.

"Good Vibrations" has some more minor issues too. If you don't think that the song "Teenage Kicks" is the best song, or even the best punk song, on the soundtrack here, then you may feel a little odd about one particular scene. As a biopic where the events in the film are decided by what happened in real life, the major hurdle Terri faces in the second half concern time and money. These are clearly very realistic and genuine problems, but not quite as compelling as the threat of bombs, guns, kidnap and torture which were raised in the first half. The pacing of the film suffers in the second half as a result.

I think it is fair to say that while the achievements of Terri Hooley are absolutely incredible, the story of how he manages it and the ins and outs of what he does make for a fairly plain story. It is the way that "Good Vibrations" has been put together as a film which make the story as enjoyable as it is. And it is, REALLY enjoyable. This is definitely a very fun watch and it feels like, no matter how embellishment is involved here, Terri Hooley must have been a very larger than life character. While a little uneven in the pacing, this is well worth checking out.

B+

Here's some examples of the punk rock music from the movie. There's some pretty great stuff here:

(video link)