CBGB (2013) * *

Directed by:  Randall Miller

Starring:  Alan Rickman, Malin Ackerman, Donal Logue, Estelle Harris, Johnny Galecki, Justin Bartha, Ashley Greene

Friends of mine traveled to CBGB, a legendary Manhattan Lower East Side club which was the starting point of many famous bands including Blondie, The Police, The Ramones, and Talking Heads.     Judging by the movie, it is a place I don't regret not visiting.     It seemed small, filthy, cramped, was in a bad neighborhood, and vomit and feces were all over the floor.     Although, if the movie is to be believed, it was a great place to get a free drink or two at the bar.  

But many famous new wave and punk bands performed there, even though the club was founded by Hilly Kristal (Rickman) as a "Country, Bluegrass, and Blues" club, hence the name CBGB.     The explanation of the OMFUG undeneath CBGB is one I still couldn't figure out.    Something to do with Other Music.     Very little country and bluegrass was played there and if Kristal ran the business this shoddily, it is little wonder he was forever trying to hold fundraisers to keep the place open.     CBGB finally closed in 2006.

As the film opens, we see Kristal attending a second bankruptcy hearing after his second bar he owned went under.    He borrows money from his mother after wandering into a small bar and realizing its potential to become what would soon be CBGB.      Bands playing music that wasn't categorized yet began playing there and played to packed houses.    A fledgling "Punk" magazine's staff were camped there nightly, interviewing the up and comers.     Amazingly, the fire marshal never seems to show up to address the overcrowding and the city doesn't seem to come by to inspect the place, which likely would've resulted in closure based on the bathrooms alone.    

We see the bands, we hear the music (which is lip-synched from the album recordings), but what we don't get is any sense that Kristal loved running CBGB and loved the music.     During the closing credits, footage from Talking Heads' 2002 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is shown.   The band brings Kristal on stage and thanks him for supporting them in any way he could.      The Kristal of this film walks around almost zombified, as if a good night's sleep has eluded him for about 15 years.     The Talking Heads are shown in one scene, where they play Psycho Killer.      Kristal says, "I see something there," which is what he says about virtually any band that auditions.     He even tries his hand at managing a punk band called The Dead Boys, who specialize in anti-social and sometimes anti-human behavior.   

Those who see CBGB for the music will be somewhat satisfied, but they would be better off downloading the songs off the computer.     As played by Rickman, who is nearly 20 years older than Kristal was at the time, Kristal is a poor business manager who looks like he would trade in CBGB for a good meal and some rest.     There is no sense of what made him tick and what drew him to back these bands.    There is little passion.    He doesn't seem to even like the music all that much.    His business partner Merv (Logue) and his daughter (Greene) are forever telling him that the place spends more than it earns, but he doesn't listen.     Maybe he has a vision in mind which we don't really see or understand.

CBGB is important in the history of rock and roll for helping launch careers and a new type of music which soon became mainstays on the airwaves and on MTV (which would debut eight years after CBGB opened).     But if you're looking for anything deeper than a Wikipedia article, you've come to the wrong movie.