The Suburbans is a 1999 American comedy-drama film that satirizes the 1980s revival hype around the turn of the 21st century. It stars Donal Lardner Ward, Craig Bierko, Will Ferrell and Tony Guma as one-hit wonder band the Suburbans and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a record company executive who wants to re-establish the band's claim to fame. Ward also co-wrote and directed the film.

The Suburbans
DVD cover for The Suburbans
Directed byDonal Lardner Ward
Written byDonal Lardner Ward
Tony Guma
Produced byJ. J. Abrams
Michael Burns
Leanna Creel
Brad Krevoy
Starring
CinematographyMichael Barrett
Edited byKathryn Himoff
Music byRobbie Konder
Production
company
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • October 29, 1999 (1999-10-29)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$11,130

The Suburbans premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 1999. It was released on a very limited number of screens (11) on October 29 of the same year, and grossing $11,130, is considered to have failed commercially. Of ten reviews counted at Rotten Tomatoes, all ten are negative.[1]

Plot edit

In 1998, Danny, Mitch, Gil and Rory, who were once a long-forgotten, early 1980s one-hit wonder band, the Suburbans, reunite to perform their only hit single at Gil's wedding. After the gig, Cate, an up-and-coming record company executive, approaches them and suggests shooting a pay-per-view reunion show that would eventually re-establish the band's claim to fame. The four, more reluctantly than not, agree and subsequently face the ramifications on their personal lives as the show's production contrasts their former rock 'n' roll image with their now middle-class, suburban lifestyle. It soon becomes evident that Cate is probably the only remaining fan of the band, who, out of a personal interest in the matter, put her own career at stake.

Cast edit

See also edit

  • Sugar Town, another "rock-and-roll and relationships"[2] film released a month earlier, and called by Janet Maslin—in her review of The Suburbans—a "better and more ambitious recent film that [also, in retrospect] had no luck in finding an audience"[2]

References edit

  1. ^ "The Suburbans". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2015-04-27.
  2. ^ a b Maslin, Janet (October 29, 1999). "Suburbans: And the Beat Goes on, Even When It Shouldn't". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-04-27.

External links edit