Dad/Daughter Road Trip to see the Premiere of Billie Joe Armstrong’s Starring Role in the Pro Dad Film Geezer
by Edward A. Shaw
As your children mature, they often influence your musical taste. This would be the case with my daughter Sarah introducing me to Green Day. She loves them. I love them. So on April 23, we made the trip to New York City to attend the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of the movie Geezer starring Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong in the lead role. It is truly a family film with a very positive dad/family message. In this age of cynicism, it is refreshing, lighthearted, meaningful and has a happy ending. It should be supported by Dad and family groups everywhere. It is a must see.
Sarah and I along with my brother Jay experienced a happening above and beyond just the movie. It was held at the Tribeca Film Festival Hub at Spring Studios, a beautifully renovated and remodeled building which accommodates many different kinds of artistic expression. Thus, the room in which the movie would be screened was set up not just for the film, but also for a special musical performance afterward with the stage equipped for a full band. As the capacity audience of 300-400 took their seats for the 8 P.M. showing, the buildup was electric. For a film starring a rock legend, it all had a very strong family vibe from the mostly 20 and 30 somethings curiously with quite a few parents in tow. The buzz among us was who would be playing with Billie Joe afterward?
But first, we had to find out if Billie Joe could not only act, could he also carry a film? And boy did he! Geezer is very entertaining and well paced. Written and directed by Lee Kirk, who is a father of two, it is set in New York City and wonderfully filmed on location. Billie Joe, who is also the father of two, plays Perry Miller, a former band member of a punk-rock group that had a record deal fail because the record company had not properly promoted their one and only album written by him. Stung by that disappointment, Perry would take an indefinite hiatus from the band after his wife Karen, played by Selma Blair, became pregnant. As the film gets underway, it is roughly 13 years later. Perry and Karen have 2 children, an adolescent daughter named Salome and a toddler son. He unhappily works in the hardware store he and his brother inherited. She is a lawyer/public defender. It is his 40th birthday. But as the day proceeds, no one mentions it. As he is already going through a midlife crisis with flashbacks to his rock and roll days, he becomes increasingly depressed and considers himself a failure. With his family seemingly inattentive, he reaches back to his rock and roll past and holds a party for himself at the presidential suite of the Drake Hotel. Yet throughout the day as he is continuously lured and tempted to make disastrous decisions, he is constantly distracted by his sense of responsibility to his family. He literally ends up running back and forth between the two worlds to take care of family matters. But each time he is brought to the brink of disaster, he makes the right decision with his family in mind. The running gag of him being late for everything throughout the day finds him just making in the nick of time his daughter’s talent show in the evening where she plays guitar and sings a song he had written. At home later as Perry is saying goodnight to Salome she asks him why he was so late for the show. He tells her the truth and that he has spent the day with people from his rock and roll past. But he assures her he doesn’t need them or that lifestyle and tells her he needs her and the rest of their family. He also tells her he doesn’t need to be in a band with them. “So will you be in a band with me?” he asks her. Without missing a beat, she answers, “Yep!”
The next day, he and Karen and their children are in the car together. Riding shotgun, Perry asks everyone what music they want to listen to. Karen tells him to play the album he had made with the band years before saying, “It’s Salome’s favorite. She listens to it all the time.” Perry, who the day before had said to one of his band mates that when the record company did not support them, he really doubted his writing ability, turns to Salome and says with surprise, “Really?!” In response, she nods enthusiastically. Perry pulls from the glove compartment the old cassette tape of the album and pops it in with a broad smile. The twinkle in his eye as the music plays and the credits begin to roll informs the viewer of his acknowledgement that not only does his family indeed care and that he is exactly in life where he is supposed to be; he also realizes that he is indeed not a failure. Rather, because his daughter believes in him, he is a success.
With the audience enthusiastically applauding the film, it turned to high pitched excitement as the band immediately took the stage. Besides Billie Joe, it included Green Day drummer Tre Cool, Jeff Matika from the Green Day auxiliary members The Big Three, New Yorker Jesse Malin and Joan Jett, who had a cameo as herself in the movie. The audience, including my daughter, flew to the stage where the very intimate setting full of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers held us all in a magical spell for a rocking set. Music is like that. It heals. And that is one of the many reasons why the movie works and perhaps why my daughter and I have so connected with the characters in it. We, like they, are a house of musicians. And when music is played in the home, it quite often is played with love.
This is a memory my daughter and I will both cherish forever. The entire evening uplifted us emotionally. Days later, it stills moves us. Though Geezer is a marvelous film I am not sure what its future is. I unfortunately don’t see it competing with the likes of Batman vs. Superman. Perhaps it will go straight to DVD. Whatever its fate, it should be seen by families far and wide.