"Light of Day", written and directed by Paul Schrader, is a very lame attempt at a meaningful and 'cool' rock and roll drama. Schrader tries to make his audience 'roll with the punches and rock with your heart' but fails to do either. The drama is both badly handled - by cast and crew alike - and uninteresting.The movie starred the then hugely popular Michael J. Fox and rocker Joan Jett as brother and sister. Gena Rowlands played their mom. The music, written by Bruce Springsteen surprisingly, is quite average.I had to force myself to sit through this, which only left me with a feeling of boredom.Thursday, November 21, 1991 - Video

I wouldn't go as far as to say this is the greatest rock n roll movie Ever, but I think this is the greatest bar band movie EVER! I grew up around Cleveland about this time, and this is how it was! My brothers are muscicians, and this was THEIR story! Back then, not many movies were filmed in Cleveland because of how it looked. It was sooooo refreshing to see a movie that not only showed how Cleveland looked, but how the people that lived there REALLY were! Joe( Michael J. Fox) reminds me so much of my brother it's scary! And Patti ( Joan Jett) was who I wanted to be!! Not to mention the music ROCKS!! I have been to the Euclid Tavern ( I think it's closed now) and the Akron Agaora (I know that's closed) and that's how they really were! Kudos to Paul Schrader for making this movie! BTW........CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!!! (Did I mention that Michael J. Fox is my favorite actor? GET BETTER MICHAEL!!!!!!!)

Back when I was 21, I went with a few friends to see another film (I forget which, now) that had sold out, leaving us with this film as an option that we took.I was so pleasantly surprised that a film I would otherwise never have bothered with turned out to be so resonant with me.I expected a teenybopper rock'n'roll picture. This film is nothing close to that. This is a gritty, hard-edged slice of life. It is full of realistic human emotion and genuine observation of actual "rock'n'roll" lifestyle, which for the vast majority of rockers means nightly sharing of a van and a motel room and splitting up a few hundred bucks five or six ways before expenses. The scene in "Motel Hell" where Fox doles out the money (after enumerating the expenses including "forty-five dollars for that tire, and eighteen for the Chinese feast") just struck such a ringingly true chord with me.The secondary drama, which plays out as you understand that the primary drama (will the band make it?) is already moot (Fox knows that the Barbusters have no chance; Jett continues to chase the dream regardless) commences with the discovery of their mother's illness.The interplay between Jett and her mother in the hospital as the mother lays dying and they reconcile their long-hardened differences is surprisingly well-played, especially on Joan Jett's part. I expected great acting from the superb Gena Rowlands; I expected zero from Jett and was blown away instead. I'm surprised she never got any other real roles; I found her to be extremely easy on the eyes and quite a lovely and talented actress. Whatever.The film has a terrific ending. No, they don't make it to the big-time, but you never expect that to happen anyway. It is simply a satisfying ending that matches the size and scope of this terrific film, which was never intended to be anything more than a look at a Cleveland family who has two members who happen to play in a road band.Catch it once in your lifetime.

did not "score" Natural Born Killers, he merely assembled and produced the soundtrack album. He also contributed a new song to that film and soundtrack (as NIN). Trent Reznor solo contributed two instrumentals to the Lost Highway score/soundtrack... And he also played piano in some of the music for World Traveler... But he has yet to score a film a la Billy Corgan for Stigmata.