Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

The life of the fictional rock star Dewey Cox: a traumatic childhood accident in Alabama in 1946, then rockabilly success, drugs, collapsing marriages, sixties experiments and finally one song that means something. Jake Kasdan directed and wrote it with Judd Apatow. John C. Reilly plays Dewey. Kasdan described the idea in his own words: to do a fake biopic, or a real biopic about a fake person. The targets are clear: Ray and the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line. Dewey carries pieces of Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and many others. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 75 percent and the box office collapsed: 20.6 million dollars against a 35 million budget. It became a cult film afterwards. Reilly was nominated for a Golden Globe. The music was a success on its own. The original songs by Dan Bern and Mike Viola drew Grammy and Golden Globe nominations, and critics wrote that they were both good and faithful to the eras they imitate. Who it is for: people who have seen musician biopics and enjoy parody. Who it is not for: anyone who has not seen the films it targets. Most of the jokes reference specific scenes and half of it disappears without them.