pleased to meet me [2013]

veteran punk rocker pete jones' personal and professional career is in the shitter.  jones gets an idea so save his ass.  call on his ex-love, a music and a radio producer for public radio program called 'world cafe', to help jones assemble a band from musicians called from classified ads.  the catch: the musicians must not know each other.  jones and producer laura klein gather the band to a studio.  they have one day to record one song.

this little comedy stars real life veteran punk rocker john doe.  producer klein is played by singer/songwriter aimee mann.  the set up is based on a story titled 'everybody speaks elton john' that aired on the radio show 'this american life.'  it's a sweet movie.  chemistry between doe and mann is good.  the jokes not so good.  the direction okay.

but then i'm a middle aged punk and alt-rock kinda guy.  i love mann and doe.  doe's character, jones, is beset with the usual habits of a rock&roll lifestyle but there is a lightness given to jones by doe.  jones has a massive ego -- most of the musicians in this movie do -- but he's a genuine teacher and an enthusiastic listener of other people's music.  when a stranger musician hands him a demo jones takes the time to listen to it.  when another musician's song is a little flat jones takes out his guitar and strums and sings along and helps the musician guide the song to beauty.

besides doe and mann simply look cool as two middle aged rockers.  doe's reading glasses are fantastic.  and mann has this cool vibe, and tattoos [and i do like me some ink] that make her presence so pleasurable to view.

can they act?  yes.  doe and mann have been acting for years.  they can give themselves to their characters.  as i said, this is a sweet little movie.  i have a soft spot for sweet-natured films.  does doe and mann reconnect?  c'mon.  did the cow jump over the moon?  but it's the way doe and mann connect that lifts this comedy from a state of merely okay to something worth a couple hours of your life.  this film has just enough of that little something to keep you rockin'.