The algorithm for pumping out grungy coming-of-age films is starting to become quite tiring at this point and while I was excited to think Gerardo Naranjo's newest film could be an exception, I was quite let down. Viena and the Fantomes is an incredibly formulaic and by-the-book film that really did nothing for either me or its entire cast of characters. I was looking forward to this film since I randomly happened to see its trailer online and while I adore the cast throughout this whole movie and can see how much talent they are trying to force onscreen, the story was not nearly strong enough to carry my attention. The subdued audio style that pulses its way through every scene was such an interesting, creative choice that I really enjoyed given that this film is supposed to be revolving around a punk band but other than that, it's hard to see past this movie's mediocrity.
Driving across 1980s North America, Viena (Dakota Fanning) joins her favorite punk band The Fantomes as a roadie and eventually becomes part of their clique. The band encounters many troubles along their travels, the main one being money as they struggle to survive as an up-and-coming punk act while being accused of molding their groupies and practically holding them hostage. Gerardo Naranjo's writing and direction throughout this film are what really make it difficult for me to get invested in anything he tries to portray. Kicking this story right off the bat by throwing his audience into the middle of the plot's timeline and then promptly flashing back to the beginning was such a cliché choice to make and right from the beginning, I knew I was going to be in for a standard ride. The main issue that I have with this film is just how utterly dull it is throughout. A movie about a groupie following a punk band and bowing under their influence is something that could be so wildly captivating, especially since the foreign punk scene has not been explored too much in film. However, this movie quickly became a generic tale of a girl caught within a love triangle with two of the band members and that's really about it. Having a love for both drummer Freddy (Jeremy Allen White) and another band member Keyes (Frank Dillane), Viena was given quite a dull path to follow with who she wanted to be with. Instead of showing any real development in her relationships with both Freddy and Keyes, Viena instead just meanders around this story with no real purpose and ends up simply running away with who you would expect. I really did not like this ending and how predictable it was but even then, the choices that she made in the script made frankly no sense. Viena and the Fantomes has a lot of interesting choices that had potential to be very compelling, that is if any of those paths had been explored. Introducing his audience to the love triangle was at least interesting but it never went anywhere and I feel like this film could have been much stronger if it had focused on the abuse of the women in this cult of sorts. Naranjo's writing could have easily pivoted to being about the horrible way that these band members treated their roadies and women on tour and while this movie did touch on that a little bit, it did nothing more than the bare minimum of introducing the problem.
Not following up on any of the film's subplots was its main problem and that goes for the storyline with Monroe (Jon Bernthal) as well. Monroe was the man responsible for watching out for the band and financing their tour and while that also could have been a good avenue to take in terms of drama, it was never fully realized. In typical Jon Bernthal fashion, he is vastly underutilized in the film and comes and goes quicker than I would have liked. Instead, this movie is just chock full of minor squabbles here and there between characters that either get settled in five minutes or never come to fruition again. They all had nothing to do with each other and because of that, it was really hard for me to feel for any of these characters. The performances throughout this film from the entire cast were all really solid and there is so much obvious talent within these frames but they were given absolutely nothing to work with. I feel like there is a much stronger film hiding somewhere within Naranjo's unused takes but the editing makes this entire story just feel empty. Not to mention that Viena's backstory was never really explored and therefore I did not even care about her as a main character. This film could have been about anyone's journey with The Fantomes and I would not have known the difference. The color grading throughout this film was also particularly ugly to look at and I was never quite sure the creative decision behind making every shot look like it had been irreversibly damaged with dust. This added a bleakness that I just could not get behind. One of the only redeeming aspects of this story that I genuinely enjoyed was the bareboned sound design. For a film about a punk band, it is quite expected for there to be lots of hard rock music and concert scenes but I really enjoyed the restraint that Naranjo showed in examining this band. There are some really interesting films I have seen that, whether or not I ended up enjoying them, take certain risks and make me keep my eyes on the screen. But there are other films like Viena and the Fantomes that no matter what they try, they just cannot for the life of me keep my attention.
Viena and the Fantomes had so much utter potential to stand out as an 80's coming-of-age film while also saying so much about the culture at the time but fails to really provide anything interesting. I am quite upset that I did not enjoy this film as much as I wanted to but I suppose there is a reason that Universal did not have much faith in this to make a huge splash, especially in our current world situation. I would recommend this film as a very easy watch and one to just pass the time but if one is looking for a film with deeper substance or something to say for itself, look elsewhere.
My Rating: ★★
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