Greetings,
Apparently, there was a time when television actors were, for the most part, on a totally different level than movie actors. You really had to make a choice between the big screen and the little one. I even heard rumors that television personalities were often looked down upon by those of the cinema. I know. It's hard to imagine movie people as being arrogant wretches, but try. Still, when it came to the television/film world, that's not to say there wasn't crossover.
It seemed that during the eighties and into the nineties, it became acceptable for actors to transition from one medium to the other. Whilst today, we see many people who are primarily known for movie roles being more than happy to get a job on a TV series, back then, it was the other way around. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't. Ironically, the cast of one eighties television show gave us a lot of both extremes. That show was, of course, Family Ties. So, thank you, Michael J. Fox, for Back to the Future, and thank you, Michael Gross, for Tremors. Yeah, I'm putting Tremors in the plus column. And, of course, Justine Bateman . . . well, maybe thank you for the film we are discussing to day. A film that I really can't decide if I like or not, Satisfaction. Or maybe I will decide. Let's see.
So, when Family Ties was beginning to be on its last legs, and after her TV brother had much cinematic success, Justine Bateman decided to head off to the big screen herself, no doubt in an attempt to stretch her acting chops. In Satisfaction, she plays Jennie Lee, a high school grad valedictorian (Wow, that is a stretch from Mallory Keaton!)who could be going off to college but has dreams of being a rock star along with her band, The Mystery. Yep, that's the name of the band. Oh, Eighties. You and your pretentious band names. They are all planning on going to Florida for an audition which could land them a summer long gig. She's in a bind, though, when one of the members quits, but, thankfully, she manages to get a guy, Nickie, played by Scott Coffey, to be their new keyboardist. Now that's just insane, because The Mystery is an all girl band. Oh, I smell some gender related hijinks in the future. And speaking of the other girls, let's meet the rest of the band.
On drums, we have Mooch, played by Trini Alvarado, who some of you may remember as Meg in the 1994 adaptation of Little Women. On guitar, we have Billie, played by Britta Phillips, who some of you may remember as the singing voice of Jem from Jem and the Holograms. And, finally, on bass, we have Daryle, played by Julia Roberts, who some of you may remember from her guest starring role on that one episode of Law and Order that she clearly got because she was dating Benjamin Bratt at the time. Seriously, though, this is the Julia Roberts that we all know and possibly love. That's right, honey. Fans and Not Fans are a package deal. Unless you're Betty White. Nobody hates Betty White. Actually, this is one of Julia Roberts' first films, released the same year as Mystic Pizza, I believe. And she's not the only familiar face here by which you may be surprised. More on that in a moment.
Okay, back to the plot. The band heads to Florida as planned with a borrowed, or not, (plot point!) van. They arrive at their nightclub destination, thinking they missed the audition, but they are actually a night early, which leads to their meeting the club's owner, Martin Falcon. We just call him Falcon, though, because I guess that makes him cooler, and he is played by - wait for it - Liam Neeson. Oh, Aslan. What in the heck? But Falcon is not only the proprietor; he is also a songwriter, who was once, but is no longer all that successful. Long story short, the band gets the summer gig, and, thus, we are pulled into a series of not very surprising scenarios.
Each band member has their own little mini-plot going on. Billie gets deeper into drugs, Daryle gets a little frisky with a guy, and Mooch and Nickie have a predictable flirtation. But the main plot concerns Jennie striking up a romance with Falcon, despite the obvious and slightly creepy age difference. I'm sure those two will, no doubt, have a long happy life together. Right? Well, even if they don't, at least Falcon knows people in the music industry who may want to help the band . . . and Jennie . . . or just one of those two things.
Look, I'm not going to go into too much more detail of this plot, since it is a bit on the contrived side. Still, whilst these characters are based on generic archetypes of both band members and people in chick flicks, they all do seem to have distinct personalities, which can often make them entertaining and fun to watch. And speaking of entertainment, we are talking about music movies here, so let's discuss the music.
I guess this is a little bit of a jukebox musical, since most of the songs are covers of already released music, like the song for which the movie is named, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". There are, however, a few songs by other artists. Now everything that was supposed to be performed by the band in the movie is, on the soundtrack, credited to Justine Batman and the Mystery. I suppose that is a more artistic way to say that they've got Justine Bateman singing with a bunch of session musicians. And when it comes to Justine's singing, I am just not sure. There are these moments where she sounds pretty good, but there are also those where she really doesn't. Like, really doesn't. I don't even know how seriously she took herself as a singer, if at all. She may have just taken the part and thought, "Hey, why not?". On the flip side, though, Britta Phillips as the aforementioned Billie, was great with the singing. Of course, she was. She is a for real singer. Remember, she was singing Jem. Sadly, they didn't use her much for that by way of solos. However, she did sing lead on a really fun cover of "Mr. Big Stuff", and went a cappella for quick versions of "God Bless the Child" and "Amazing Grace". Seriously? The drug addict is the one singing all the religious music? What is up with that? Anyway, I wish they would have let her do more, because she does have a fantastic voice. Oh, well. I guess you all can just go get something like the L'Avventura album she did with Dean Wareham, since someone refuses to release all the music from Jem on a nice, big box set of CDs for the (yes, we exist!) rabid fans. But I digress.
So my final verdict is that, if you don't take this film too seriously, it's actually not that bad. I mean, whilst it did get a big screen release, it really reeks of TV movie, which, of course, isn't always a bad thing. Frankly, I think if this had been released as a TV movie, it may have been better received. As the years have passed, I don't think people find that the quality of the film has improved, but it is more appreciated for the nostalgia of it, and the fun of it. Come on, it's an eighties, coming of age, chick flick about a band. Just the thought of that entertains me. Therefore, I say if you want something light for movie night with the girls, this might be a good choice.
So I guess maybe I do like this.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
